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HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY

Preservation facsimile

printed on alkaline/buffered paper

and bound by

Acnie Bookbinding

Charlestown, Massachusetts

2004

.y/,4./^ .//„„/.

MB. WILLIAM B. BEMTINOK-SMITH

t^ HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARYJR^

COLOUR PRINTING

AND

COLOUR PRINTERS

COLOUR PRINTING

AND

COLOUR PRINTERS

BY R. M. BURCH

WITH A CHAPTER ON MODERN
PROCESSES BY W. GAMBLE

NEW YORK: THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO.

I 9 I o

PREFACE

Colour printing is of three orders, relief, intaglio, and piano-
graphic. The first includes such processes as printing from
wood blocks, photo-engraved surfaces, and stereotype and
electrot3^e plates, and is, in its inception, the oldest of all
the methods of producing printed pictures. Engraving in
intaglio comes next in point of age, dating from as early
as 1470-80, if not before, and the arts of engraving in line or
stipple on copper or steel plates, etching, mezzotinting,
aquatinting, and photogravure come imder this head. There
is, of course, no absolute planographic printing — the class
to which lithography belongs — ^as even the ink on the surface
of the stone, or zinc or aluminium plate stands out in slight
relief. Each of these three styles of printmg requires a
different kind of press or machine.

As colom: printing cannot be done without colomred inks,
a few words on that branch of the subject will be of interest.
Moxon, the earliest English writer on printing (London, 1683),
did not refer to any other ink than black, but the use of
vermilion in making red is touched upon by M. D. Ferzol,
in his Science Pratique de Vlmprimerie (St. Omer, 1722), this
being possibly the first technical reference to coloured printing
ink. In the fifth volume of the Encyclopidie Mithodique
(1751) appeared an article on printing by M. Breton, who
then held the office of printer to the King of France. He
stated that although red and black inks were the only
sorts in common use, others could be prepared by substitute
ing verdigris for lamp black or vermilion, where a green
ink was required ; Prussian blue for blue ink ; orpiment
for yellow ink, or fine lake for violet ink. These pigments
were to be calcined, noixed with white lead, and then incor-
porated with varnish in the usual way. Papillon, in his
treatise on wood engraving, supplemented this by saying

PREFACE

that a wood coloured ink could be made from umber, and a
bistre one from wood soot. He also recommended the use
of indigo and Indian ink. The first English patent connected
with the manufacture of coloured ink for printing purposes
is that of James Rowley in 1772. This was for use in printing
playing-cards from copper plates in oil colours, " with a
peculiar kind of ink which will bear the leesing or polish
necessary to be given to playing-cards, which no other ink
known to the printers or card-makers is capable of." The
ink was compounded of the ordinary ingredients used for
making-up colours for painting the cards by hand, but instead
of mixing them with water, Rowley used linseed oil and alum,
boiled and calcined. Savage, in his book on the subject,
says that prior to the pubhcation of his work on Decorative
PrifUing nearly all typographers who essayed to print with
coloured inks had been ba£Sed. Only a very few ink-makers
were able to supply such sorts, and it was generally foimd
that what was suppUed was not really suitable for the purpose.
No English writer on printing matters appears to have men-
tioned coloured inks prior to the publication of Nicholson's
Dictionary of Chemistry in 1795, and he merely referred to
red ink, stating that, in order to prepare it, vermilion should
be substituted for lamp black. Dr. Rees, writing on Print-
ing Inks in his Cyclopadia about the same time, made a
similar remark, and also pointed out that the addition of
a piece of fish glue the size of a nut, a little brandy, or the
white of an egg, had been held by some to improve the lustre
of red ink. Savage's Decorative Printing contains detailed
recipes for making inks of the colours of the eighteen samples
he gives.

The present volume is not offered to the reader as a complete
history of Colour Printing, but merely constitutes an attempt
to indicate some of the lines on which the compilation of
such a book might proceed. It is mainly concerned with
English colour work, although of course references to what
was done in other countries could not very well be excluded,

PREFACE

particularly in the earlier chapters, and its starting point is
the middle of the fifteenth century, from which period
printing became general in Europe. There is hardly any room
for doubt that movable types were in use in the Far East — ^in
Korea, for instance — for some considerable time before, but
this was in all probability quite unknown to Gutenberg and
his successors, and so could have had no possible influence
upon their work. In any case, there is little or nothing of
the kind extant that would lead to the assumption that colour
printing was practised in Far Eastern countries prior to
1450, as the earliest Japanese colour prints seem to have been
produced about the commencement of the eighteenth century.
In Europe, printing or stamping in colour, for one purpose
or another, may have been in use long before Gutenberg's time.
It has even been suggested that some art of the kind was prac-
tised by the Romans. Cicero, in one of his letters to his friend
Atticus, refers to a book which he calls Peplographia Var-
ronis, descriptive of a method invented by Varro, whereby
a number of copies of a collection of, say portraits, could be
made for general distribution. Some seventy years since,
several writers were of opinion — and the Revi4e des Deux
Monies adopted the idea — that the pictures were copied by
engraving on ivory, and that tinted reproductions of them
were made on canvas, by means of several plates. But this
notion is now generally abandoned, although the precise
nature of the benignissimum Varronis inventum is still unknown.
To descend from the region of speculation to that of fact,
an allusion may be permitted to the so-called Gospels of
Ulphilas, a work of the fifth or sixth century, preserved
in the University Library at Upsala, Sweden, the text of
which is in gold and silver, on vellum stained a purple tint.
The letters are considered not to have been written in the
ordinary way, but stamped from types, heated and impressed
on the vellum. Papillon relates a long tale about two Italians,
the brothers Cunio, who are said to have engraved on wood
a series of pictures illustrating the actions of Alexander the

• «
Vll

PREFACE

Great, and printed impressions from them in 1285. This
is, however, now looked upon as a mere fable, whether invented
by Papillon or not, although there is no doubt of the antiquity
of engraving on wood, an art which was the first in use for
producing colour prints. In the South Kensington Museiun
are some fragments of textile fabrics, bearing patterns which
are considered to have been impressed from wood blocks
as early as the eleventh or twelfth century, perhaps in the
neighbourhood of Cologne. There is a woodcut of the Virgin
and Child in the Biblioth&que Nationale at Paris, which
Delaborde attributed to 1406, and another at Brussels dated
1418, but the authenticity of the date is doubted. In the
Spencer-Rylands Library at Manchester is a woodcut of St.
Christopher, dated 1423, which is generally looked upon as
the earliest known specimen of the art. A Decree of the
Government of Venice, in 1441, was directed to " protecting "
the local industry of producing coloured playing-cards and
pictures of saints against the importation of foreign goods
of that kind. There are nine woodcuts, of mid-fifteenth century
date or earlier, preserved in the British Museum, and four
of these are printed in brown ink, the colour commonly used
for the Block Books, and one, therefore, which appears to
have been popular at the time of the invention of printing.

The writer's attention was first directed to the subject
of this book several years ago, the outcome being a series
of articles on the " History of Printing in Colours," compiled
for a trade paper, the British and Colonial Printer and
Stationer, which appeared at intervals in that periodical
during 1903-6. The original matter has, however, been
re-written and undergone complete revision, considerable
additions being made, whilst at the same time those portions
which would have but little general interest were deleted.
This latter point the reader is desired to bear in mind, many
minor methods of colour printing having been passed over,
so that the absence of any mention of a process may be reason-
ably attributed, not to want of knowledge, but to lack of

• • •
VIU

PREFACE

space. This is, for instance, the reason why no reference
appears to " Nature Printing " (fully dealt with by Mr.
Hardie) ; Stenochromy ; Graphotj^e ; and the letterpress
colour printing of the eighties, of which a fine collection of
specimens may be inspected at the St. Bride Foundation.

Colour printing, from the point of view adopted in this
volume, is printing in any colour other than black, although
red, where used for the text of a volume, is not dealt with
to any great extent. This being a book on colour printing,
not a work on art, it must be borne in mind that when a
particular production of the kind is praised, or otherwise,
it is not criticised as a work of art, but simply as a piece
of colour printing. An object that may possess great interest
in another direction may be of hardly any accoimt from
a technical standpoint ; the Shakespeare First FoUo, for
example, one of the greatest of English literary landmarks,
is almost beneath contempt as a piece of typography. The
plan the writer has followed in the compilation of this work
is the arrangement of the matter chronologically, as far as
possible. There is, of course, a certain amount of overlapping
here and there, in order to follow the sequence of a particular
branch of colour printing, as, for instance, in the latter part
of Chapter IV, where early nineteenth century work is
referred to in a section nominally devoted to the eighteenth
century. The writer has endeavoured to enlarge, wherever
possible, upon points that had not hitherto received much
attention at the hands of other historians of the Graphic Arts,
rather than to merely repeat what can be found in detail
in recent books. Baxter's colour process, for example, has
been dealt with so fully by Mr. Courtney Lewis within the
last year or two, that it is unnecessary to repeat his facts
again. On the other hand, the " licensee printers," who
received but little attention at his hands, have been treated
at rather more length. The Le Blon process, too, has been
handled by several writers of late, so far as its practice in
England is concerned, but hardly any attempt had been

PREFACE

made to follow its fortunes in detail after the inventor's death,
a gap which the writer has tried to fill. The production of
the " eighteenth century colour print," a subject upon which
many pens have been employed, is passed over rather cursorily,
as to deal adequately with it would require a good part of
this volume ; whilst treating it in brief detail would lead
to the inclusion of a mere catalogue of engravers' names
and works. It is presumed that most of those into whose
hands this book will fall have some interest in, or acquaint-
ance with, its subject, either as colour printers, students or
admirers of colour printing, or collectors of coloured prints ;
the use of technical terms has, however, been avoided as
much as possible. This being practically the first work
devoted exclusively to a history of printing in colours, it is
not possible to refer to previous authorities on the same sub-
ject, as the writer has mostly compiled his matter first-hand,
as the result of a personal inspection of the books or prints
referred to. Some useful notes have, however, been gathered
from an interesting series of articles on engraving in colour
by Baron Roger Portalis, which appeared in the Gazette des
Beaux Arts in 1888-90. Notices relating to colour printing
are scattered through a number of works dealing with various
branches of art and industry, and these have been consulted
or made use of as far as the writer could gain intelligence
of or access to them. Much, no doubt, still remains to be
done before a detailed and exhaustive history of printing
in colours can be compiled, as every chapter of this work might
be expanded into a volume ; but whatever the shortcomings
of the present compilation may be — ^most attempts to break
new ground in history possess them — ^they are at least not
due to any want of effort on the writer's part. The store of
examples of colour printing at the British Museum is not
easily accessible except to the experienced worker there, but
an excellent and fairly representative collection of specimens
may be seen at any time, by anybody interested, at the Tech-
nical Library of the St. Bride Foundation, in Bride Lane,

PREFACE

Fleet Street. In this connection, the writer's thanks are due
to Mr. R. A. Peddie, in charge of that section of the Library,
for much useful help and many valuable hints.

It will not be out of place here, perhaps, to suggest to the
second-hand bookseller that he adopt the habit of describing
definitely in his catalogues the nature of the coloured illustra-
tions in the books which pass through his hands. Most of
his class appear to think that the term " coloured print "
suffices for every possible requirement, regardless of whether
the colouring be applied by hand or by the press, and if the
latter, to what class the prints belong ; i.e., whether intaglio,
rehef, or lithographic. The writer has tested hundreds of such
entries in booksellers' catalogues, only to find that the prints
mentioned in nine-tenths of them had been coloured wholly
or partly by hand, even in cases where it was distinctly stated
that they were " printed in colours." An accurate biblio-
graphy of books illustrated by pictures printed in colours
would be of considerable service to the future historian of
colour printing. Pingrenon, in his Livres Omis . . , en
Couleur (1903), gives a long bibliography at the end of the
volume, but, so far as the writer has tested it, it is of Uttle more
value, from his point of view, than the ordinary bookseller's
catalogue, as most of the entries relate to books containing
hand-coloured plates, and no attempt is made to separate
these from the others.

Regard being had to Mr. W. Gamble's expert knowledge of
modem colour printing processes, his chapter descriptive
of them is a distinct acquisition to the volume, and serves
to bring the subject matter absolutely down to date. The
writer's own MS. has also had the advantage of Mr. Gamble's
perusal and friendly criticism.

By way of appendix to what is said on pages 67-8 about the
German colour-printed botanical plates, it may be mentioned
that a few plates of similar character — ^perhaps inspired by
the others, which are of contemporary date — ^may be seen in
Martjoi's edition of Virgil, London, 1741.

PREFACE

Since Chapter IV went to press, the writer's attention has
been directed to a couple of old colour prints exhibited at the
South Kensington Museum, which are undoubted examples
of the " mechanical painting " process operated by Boulton
& Watt, of Soho (Birmingham), about 1780 ; this was perhaps
identical with the Polygraphic method. They were acquired
by Sir Francis Petit Smith (then curator of the Patents Museum,
but better known as the inventor of the screw propeller) in
1863, on the occasion of a visit to Sir M. P. W. Boulton. The
subjects are a " Sleeping Cupid," in facsimile of Ryland's
stipple engraving after AngeUca Kau£Emann, and " Diana and
Endymion " (?). Although it has been alleged that the copies
were produced by photographic methods, this cannot be the
case, as they differ in various small details. The " Diana "
print is apparently in the three primary colours, red, blue and
yellow, and to all appearance has been printed from a plate
inked d la poupie ; the other is somewhat similar. The late
Mr. Vincent Brooks was of opinion that aquatint was the
process used, and an inspection of the uncoloured duplicates
exhibited in the same frame tends to confirm the idea. Sir
M. P. W. Boulton's " Remarks " on these pictures (1865) does
not throw any real light on the subject, although the writer
of the notice of Eglinton in the D, N, B. seems to think that he
(Boulton) fully explained it.

Apropos of what has been said on pages 211-2 about the
Arundel Society for Promoting the Knowledge of Art (to give
it its full title) it may be mentioned that round about 1870
they acted as publishers, for the South Kensington Museum
authorities, of some series of " Chromo lithographs of objects
of Art " exhibited there, in several elephant folio parts, only
an odd one of which seems to have found its way to the British
Museum.

The two-colour initial to Chapter I is copied from one
in the Canon of The Mass of 1458, mentioned on
page 4.

The acknowledgments of both writer and publishers are

••

Xll

PREFACE

due to Mr. E. Wilfred Evans, for printing, and to Messrs.
Wame & Co. for permission to use, one of Miss Kate Green-
away's pictures, as an example of wood-block printing in
colours.

The examples of modem colour processes, furnished by
representative firms engaged in the work, also serve to illustrate
many of the references made to them. The Rembrandt
Intaglio Company's colour print is notable as being the first
example of their process used for book illustration. Messrs.
Carl Hentschel, Ltd., who have done pioneer work in developing
the three-colour process, show a good example of their " Color-
t3rpe " method, which has been largely used for the illustration
of numerous high-class art books issued during the last few
years. Messrs. Andr6 & Sleigh, Ltd., who have also done a
vast amount of fine book illustration by the three-colour
block process, and have made a speciality of reproducing the
pictures in our national galleries, contribute a specimen of their
new "screenless" process, which may almost be described as
the " last word " in three-colour reproduction. Messrs. John
Swain & Son's reproduction of a portrait is a notable result
by a firm who have had a large part in successfully developing
the process of three-colour block making and printing.
The Press Etching Co.'s specimen of their " Prescoltint "
process is interesting as an example of skilful handwork
on a photographic basis, and combining both grain and half-
tone dot plates. The plate by Mr. C. G. Zander's " Com-
plementary " Colour Process illustrates more forcibly than the
printed description the features of his method. The charming
little print by the London County Coxmcil School of Photo-
engraving and Lithography not only demonstrates the success
of the teaching, but also shows the possibility of printing on a
pure rag paper instead of the highly surfaced chalk-coated
papers commonly used for half-tone printing. The Half-Tone
Co.'s four-colour reproduction of one of the coloured prints in
Savage's book is a characteristic example of the possibilities
of the process. The three-colour reproduction in the

■ • ■
XUl

PREFACE

" Metzograph " grain, from the Process Studios of Geo. Newnes,
Ltd., is a welcome contribution, as showing a distinctly new
style of treatment, which has great promise. Messrs. Bemrose
& Sons, Ltd., Derby, and Messrs. Taylor Bros., Leeds, each
show distinct styles of multi-colour printing, which are most
valuable for comparative purposes. Other examples of three-
colour printing have been contributed by Messrs. Macfarlane
& Erskine, and Messrs. J. J. Waddington, Ltd.; also one
in four colours by the Graphic Photo-Engraving Company.
These are of interest as being modem reproductions of
old coloured pictures. In the case of the portrait of
Guido Reni, it was thought desirable — the original itself
being in three colours — to show the print in its successive
stages of reproduction by the modem three-colour process,
thus furnishing what the writer believes to be a unique series
of pictures of this kind ; they have been printed at the pubUsh-
ers' own estabhshment. The stages are : (1) first colour,
(2) second colour, (3) second colour on first, and (4) third
colour, the printing of which on (3) produces the finished
picture. Outdoor colour-screen photography, in connection
with the three-colour printing method, has not hitherto been
much practised, owing to inherent difficulties, but an example
by the Marshall Engraving Co. is included in this volimie.
The Arc Engraving Co., Ltd., who, in 1897, were the first to
attempt working the " direct " three-colour process with
collodion emulsion, show a good example of their recent work.
A characteristic example of everyday work in chromo-litho-
graphy by the new " Offset " process is provided by Messrs.
Geo. Mann & Co., and an excellent specimen of colour work
direct from the stone has been supplied by Messrs. McCaw,
Stevenson & Orr, Ltd. Collotype in colours is a process very
seldom operated in this country, and therefore the example
of this class of work that is contributed by Messrs. W. & T.
Gaines will be of interest. Letterpress colour-printing from
type is well exemplified by the old-style specimen sent by
Messrs. Geo. Falkner & Co.
Finally, we have to tender our thanks to the London County

xiv

PREFACE

Council School of Photo-engraving and Lithography for the
loan of the black-and-white initial blocks for the chapters,
with the exception of that for Chapter X, which was designed
and engraved by the Photo-Process Dept. of the Municipal
School of Technology, Manchester.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PACK

PREFACE ...... V

I. COLOUR PRINTING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY . 1

II. COLOUR PRINTING IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH

CENTURIES . . . . . .13

III. COLOUR PRINTING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
SECTION I : LE BLON'S THREE-COLOUR PROCESS —
THE LATER WORKERS IN CHIAROSCURO . 49

rV. COLOUR PRINTING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
SECTION II : INTAGLIO PRINTING PROCESSES — ^STIPPLE,
AQUATINT, ETC. . . . . .82

V. COLOUR PRINTING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY —
CHROMO-XYLOGRAPHY. SECTION I: SAVAGE AND HIS
" DECORATIVE PRINTING " — BAXTER, HIS LICENSEES
AND HIS RIVALS— THE CHISWICK PRESS . .115

VI. COLOUR PRINTING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY —
CHROMO-XYLOGRAPHY. SECTION II : KNIGHT,

LEIGHTON, VIZETELLY, EVANS, FAWCETT, SILBERMANN,
THE KNOFLERS, HODSON, ETC. . . .141

VII. CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY. SECTION I : FROM THE

INVENTION OF THE ART TO 1850 . . .174

VIII. CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY. SECTION II I FROM THE

EXHIBITION OF 1851 TO THE PRESENT DAY . . 199

IX. PHOTO-MECHANICAL COLOUR PRINTING — COLOUR

ETCHING ...... 220

X. MODERN COLOUR PROCESSES. BY W. GAMBLE, EDITOR

OF THE " PROCESS YEAR BOOK " . . . 253

INDEX ....... 275

xvii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

HALF TONES

GEORGE BAXTER

KEY PLATE OF BAXTER'S " HOLLYHOCKS

GEO. C. LEIGHTON .

BENJAMIN FAWCETT .

RUDOLF KNbFLER — ^HEINRICH KNOFLER

GODEFROI ENGELMANN

OWEN JONES — CHAS. JOSEPH HULLMANDEL

MICHAEL HANHART — WILLIAM DAY .

PAGE

124
126
146
160
166
180
182

COLOUR PRINTS

CHIAROSCURO PRINT BY J. SKIFFE . . . FrOfUtSpisce

THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI I CHIAROSCURO BY UGO DA CARPI 22
PORTRAIT OF A MAN : LINE ENGRAVING IN COLOURS BY

J. TEYLER . . . . .46

PORTRAIT OF GUIDO RENI : THREE-COLOUR MEZZOTINT BY

LASINIO . . . . . .64

LANDSCAPE FROM SAVAGE'S "DECORATIVE PRINTING" . 118

BAXTER PROCESS PRINT ..... 136

WOOD-BLOCK PRINT AFTER KATE GREEN AWAY . .156

LETTERPRESS PRINTING IN COLOURS FROM TYPE . .164

CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH . . . . .210

A CONFERENCE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY : MEZZOCHROME

PHOTOGRAVURE IN COLOURS ....

COLLOTYPE IN COLOURS .....

THREE-COLOUR PRINT: THE LADY HILDEGARDE
THREE-COLOUR PRINT, COPY OF AN OLD MASTER
PRESCOLTINT PRINT ......

THREE-COLOUR PRINT BY " COLOURTYPE " PROCESS .

THREE-COLOUR PRINT ON RAG PAPER
THREE-COLOUR PRINT BY OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY
THREE-COLOUR PRINT FROM AUTOCHROME PLATES
" THE HOLY FAMILY " I FOUR-COLOUR PRINT
SCREENLESS THREE-COLOUR PROCESS PRINT .
ZANDER'S FOUR-COLOUR PROCESS PRINT
METZOGRAPH THREE-COLOUR PROCESS PRINT .
CHROMO-LITHOGRAPH BY " OFFSET " METHOD

224
228
230
234
236
238
240
244
254
258
260
262
264
266

XVUl

— Printing and
>ur Printers

UNTINC IN THE FIFTEEKTH
CENTURY

RINTING in colours almost

certainly had its origin in

attempts to imitate by

mechanical means, though

to a very limited extent, the

colour decoration of the

M55. which furnished the

iest printed books.

lecessary to point out that in

the invention of printing all

anuscript, either on paper or

t in many cases — particularly

ional works — the text of the

ated by decorative initials,

paintings in colours, which

of a high order of merit.

. printing first began to be

1 the middle of the fifteenth

iters took the MSS. as their

e type-cutters imitated the

lettering of the scribes. These latter, as a rule, only executed

the text of a book, leaving the initials, borders, pictures and

decorative accessories to be filled in by other hands, those of the

lubricators and the miniature-painters. The earliest printers

apparently felt unequal to the task of imitating these by

impressions from relief surfaces, and so, hke the contemporary

scribes, contented themselves with printing the text of a

COLOUR PRINTING

work, the initials, borders, etc., being afterwards painted
by hand, as in the MSS. But within a very short time after
the death of Gutenberg in 1468, woodcut initials, borders and
illustrations made their appearance. They were nearly all
in outline, and frequently rather hard and crude in effect
when compared with the hand-painted work seen in the MSS.
or the earliest printed books. This was also the case with
what are known as the " Block Books," in which both picture
and explanatory text was engraved together, a single wood
block thus serving for each page, and furnishing the distinctive
title since given to the books themselves. Most of these were
evidently contemporary with the early movable-type printed
books, and yet the producers of the latter were several years
in evolving the idea of combining the two styles, so as to
produce a type-printed book with woodcut illustrations.
Although the art of letterpress printing almost certainly took
its rise, so far as Europe is concerned, in the first half of the
fifteenth century — when and where is still quite unknown, in
spite of the multitude of books that have been written on the
subject — ^no extant dated examples have been cited earlier
than 1454, in the latter part of which year the first issue of the
well-known Letter of Indulgence was got out, presiunably from
the press of Johan Gutenberg, the supposed inventor of
printing, at Mainz.

It is probable that the " Indulgences " were preceded by at
least some of the Block Books, which are usually looked upon
as being the forerunners of books printed from movable typt,
but this is a point which is likewise imcertain. Still, it will do
no harm to accept the general opinion on the subject, and we
may therefore select the era of their production, whatever that
was, as a starting point for our history, seeing that colour
printing of a kind was carried out in the case of a few of these
Block Books (such as the Ars Moriendi of c. 1450), which are
printed in a sort of watery-brown or bistre tint. The pictorial
effect, whether black or brown ink were used, was, when
compared with the beautiful coloured designs of the

RUBRICATED TYPOGRAPHY

professional miniature-painters, bald and dreary in the extreme,
and some of the purchasers of the volumes evidently thought so,
many of those that remain having the illustrations coloured by
hand. The printing was done on one side of the paper only, two
sheets being pasted together back to back, to form a leaf of the
book itself. It is doubtful whether any press was used in
printing them, the general opinion being that the wood block
was inked, the paper placed upon the wet engraved surface,
and rubbed with the hand or a cloth, in order to produce
an impression, much in the same way as coloured prints
are to this day produced in Japan. The hand-colouring of
book illustrations was very commonly practised during the
latter part of the fifteenth century. Prior to about 1480,
manuscripts — even the more costly painted and illuminated
ones — ^were many, and illustrated printed books few, so that
the book-buying public of the third quarter of the fifteenth
century was not accustomed to, and did not much appreciate,
the crudity of the decorative elements of the latter. The
printers of that time could not fail to have been aware of the
partiality generally displayed for that colouring to which
book readers and buyers had so long been used, and there is
evidence that a few of them, at least, endeavoured to supply
what their productions lacked in this respect.

The commonest form of colour printing is that in which red
and black inks are used for the text of a book, and typical
examples of it may be seen in, for instance, some editions of
the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England,
where the rubrics, or directions to the officiating minister and
his congregation — as distinguished from the prayers them-
selves — ^are printed in red, i.e,, " rubricated " (from the Latin
ruber, red), the rest of the text being in black. The practice
of distinguishing passages of this kind, chapter or page headings
and the hke, by writing or marking them in red, dates from
very early times, and another, equally ancient, was that of
making the initial letters of the first words of chapters, and
other divisions of a work, much larger, and of a different

COLOUR PRINTING

colour from the body of the text. Both these usages of the
scribes were common at the time when t3^graphy was intro-
duced, and the earliest essays towards colour printing proper
seem to have been directed to imitating them, as was pointed
out in the conunencement of this chapter. The first printed
book which has what is considered an authentic — ^though not
a printed — date is the 42-line " Mazarin " Bible, supposed
to have been produced by Gutenberg at Mainz not later than
1456, as one of the existing copies contains the written date of
August 15th in that year, being the day on which the rubricator,
who filled in the initials, etc., by hand, finished his task in
one of the volumes. The earlier sheets of this Bible have
headings and initials printed in red, but as the work progressed
this practice was abandoned, and the spaces left blank for the
rubricator to deal with.

The next development of colour printing was on a more
ambitious scale, and occurs in the Liturgical Psalter printed
by Fust and Schoeffer at Mainz, in August, 1457, the first
printed book to bear a genuine printed date, which, it may be
noted, is just a year later than that which occurs in the Bible
already alluded to. The text of this Psalter is in a very large
Gothic type, printed in red and black. It also has a series of
large decorative initials in two colours, red and blue. There
has been much controversy as to the manner in which these
were produced, one theory being that they were stamped
in by hand in blank spaces left for them in the printed page,
whilst another is that there was a separate block for each
colour, and that they were inked, fitted together, and placed
in a space left for them in the forme of type, which had pre-
viously been inked in black. A second edition of the Psalter
was published in 1459, and between the two {i.e., in 1458) a
Canon of the Mass appears to have been got out, some frag-
ments of which are preserved in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford. It has the text in red and black, and is decorated with
large and small two-colour initials, in a similar manner to the
Psalters, red, blue and purple being the colours used. Whatever

EARLY COLOUR-PRINTED INITIALS

may have been the case with regard to the large initials, there
seems no reason to doubt that the rubricated passages in the
text were produced by a second printing, the type for the red
ink being made up separately from that intended to be inked
in black. In one page of the Canon the large initial has not been
printed at all, and the word printed in red close by is upside
down, defects that are evidently the result of some carelessness
on the part of the maker-up or the pressman. There are, how-
ever, extant evidences which go to prove that another method
of working these two-colour jobs was tried, probably about the
same time. These are to be found in an undated Missale Speciale
in the possession of a Munich bookseller, which some authorities
consider was produced before the Psalter of 1457, or even prior
to 1450. In this case it is almost certain that there was only
one forme of type for each page, the passages intended to be
printed in red being made up in their proper places along with
the text to be printed in black, and inked apart from the
latter, which was possibly covered over during the operation.
Naturally the red ink occasionally got rubbed on projecting
portions of the " black " letters, and vice versa, and this not
having been noticed by the pressman, the defects were per-
petuated on the printed page, and thus show the method
adopted by the man who inked the forme. In 1459 the
Rationale Divinorum Officiorum of G. Durandus was produced
by Fust & Schoefler. This contains a series of initials in
two colours in the style of the Psalters, of which the actual
letter is nearly alwa}^ red, the attached ornament being as a
rule in one of several shades of greyish-blue. The text com-
mences with a very large initial Q, also printed in two colours.
It seems hkely that these large decorative initials in Fust &
Schoefler's earliest books were printed or stamped on the page
before the text, and that the actual letter was printed first, and
the surrounding ornament added subsequently. Mr. Weale
thinks the letters were stencilled, but his argument is not parti-
cidarly convincing. Moreover the outlines of many of them form
complete rings of colour, and it is not easy to conceive that

COLOUR PRINTING

these could be the product of stencilling. The Latin Bible
printed at Mainz by Fust & Schoeffer in 1462 (the second
volume of which is dated August 14th, exactly five years after
the first dated Psalter) has a colophon — or statement of the
date and place of printing, with the name of the printer— of
several lines, printed in red, followed by the device of those
typographers, a double shield, hkewise in red. The volumes
have also some headings printed in red.

Colour printing was essayed in Italy, England and France
before the end of the fifteenth century, in the order in which
those countries are named. From 1469 onwards, Venice was
the Italian Metropolis of printing. In 1476 a press was
started there by three Germans, one of whom (he had the
business in his own hands in 1478) was Ehrhard Ratdolt, who
came from the Bavarian city of Augsburg, where printing was
begun as early as 1468. He seems to have been one of the
most skilled and enterprising printers of the age, and many
of his books rank, in typographical importance, with those of
the still more famous Venetian printer, Nicolas Jenson. Ratdolt
is especially celebrated for the amount of decorative and illus-
trative work that he introduced into his books, in the form of
woodcuts, ornamental borders, initials and diagranfis. It was
in connection with these latter that he seems to have made his
first experiment in colour printing, the work selected being
the thirteenth century astronomical treatise of John Holywood
(better known by the Latin translation of his name, " Sacro-
bosco "), supposed to have been a native of Halifax. Ratdolt
issued his first edition of the work in July, 1482 ; it was a small
4to volume of sixty folios, and had nearly forty diagrams,
generally about half the size of the page, nine of which, as
being the most important, were coloured, but by hand. Sub-
sequently it seems to have occurred to Ratdolt that these
principal diagrams, which consisted merely of outlines, might
be coloured by the press. At any rate, he got out another
edition of the book in 1485, in which seven of the thirty-
two half-page cuts it contained were printed in colours, six

15TH CENTURY COLOUR PRINTING AT VENICE

of them in yellow or drab and black, and one in red, yellow
and black. The novelty of the thing perhaps appealed to
book-buyers, with the restdt that fresh editions of the work,
decorated in a similar manner, were called for. A second one
came out in the Spring of 1488, from the press of Hieronimus
de Sanctis and Santritter, at Venice, seven of the diagrams
being printed in two, and one of them in three colours.
Ratdolt's material, and perhaps his pressman, was probably
employed (he himself had returned to Augsburg in 1486) as
the colour work is of similar character, and some of the orna-
mental woodcut initials apparently identical. A third edition
of the work was published at Venice in October, 1490, by
0. Scotus, the printer being — according to the colophon —
B. Locatellus. The colour printing is on the same lines as
before, six diagrams being in one colour and black, and one
in two colours and black. Some of the blocks used in this
edition had previously been in the possession of the printer
of the preceding one, H. de Sanctis, so that there was evidently
some connection between them, which may account for the
similarity of their colour work.

What is generally regarded as an edition pirated from the
last two was produced by another Venetian printer, G. de
Tridino, early in 1491. The same seven diagrams were in
colours, but in this instance the printers, either from want
of skill or from a desire to save trouble, stencilled the tints in
place of working them on the press. Proof of this is afforded
by the fact that the " ties " which united the cut-out parts
of the stencils with the body of the plates, and of course pro-
duced uncoloured spaces, show in the prints as white lines.
Ottley, one of the historians of wood engraving, was of opinion
that a similar stencilling process was used in applying the
colours to the earliest extant specimens of playing-cards, which
are generally referred to the latter part of the fifteenth
century.

One other example of Venetian colour printing may be
noticed before we turn to the work of our own country in that

COLOUR PRINTING

line. It occurs in a book printed by John Herzog in 1490,
the Repeiitis Tituli of J. Crispus de Montibus, and consists
of a double-page genealogical chart of the Tree of Affinity, etc.,
tinted in red, brown and green, though this last colour, which
is applied to the leaves of the trees, may have been stencilled.
Herzog had several earlier local examples to guide him in
his work, but where the first English colour printer obtained
his inspiration from is a matter of mystery, seeing that neither
Caxton or any other printer in England in that day did any-
thing of the kind, and apart from the Psalters of a quarter-
of-a-century before nothing in the way of colour work seems
to have been previously attempted on the Continent, save
that produced by Ratdolt in 1485, which was hardly likely to
have come inmiediately imder the notice of a man in a small
English town. The earliest examples of colour printing in
England occur in the last two books issued by the " Schoolmaster
Printer '* at St. Albans, in 1483 (?) and 1486 respectively. This
is a fact that escaped notice until quite lately, none of the
bibliographers who described the productions of the first
St. Albans press having apparently realised the historical
importance of the colour work the last two of them contained.
In the earlier, the Si. Albans Chronicle, the initials are printed
throughout in red, contrary to the usual practice of inserting
them by hand, but in the treatise on Coat Armour in the
so-called Book of St. Albans, the printer attempted much
higher flights. This work is illustrated by a large number of
heraldic shields, printed in their proper colours, of which some-
times two or three occur together on the same shield. Con-
sidering the rude nature of the appliances then in use, the press
work is fairly well done, and the register maintained between
the different colours is usually good. Red, blue and brown
were used, in addition to the common black, the yellow that
appears on some of the shields being most likely added by
hand. The same tints were also used in printing the initials
throughout the book. The identity of the Schoolmaster is
quite unknown ; he seems to have been at work in the

EARLY COLOUR WORK IN FRANCE AND SPAIN

Hertfordshire town as early as 1480. But whoever he was, the
St. Albans printer was evidently a man of originality and
enterprise, and his colour work deserves far more attention
than it has hitherto received. After his time, English colour
printing, for more than two centuries, was practically confined
to the ordinary black and red, though there was but little of
the latter colour seen after the Reformation had done away with
the picturesque two-colour service books of the Roman Church.

A very interesting example of colour printing occurs in a
Horae of the B.V.M., printed by Jean du Pr6 at Paris in 1490,
a small octavo volume which is unique of its kind. Like all the
early Horae, it is profusely illustrated, and the cuts, borders
and decorative initials are printed in colours, or more properly
speaking in some one colour other than black, green, brown
and red being the tints used. A large cut was usually sur-
rounded by several smaller ones, forming a sort of border, and
generally the cut is in one colour and the border in a different
one, or some of the pieces composing the border may be in one
colour, and the rest in another, making two or three colours on
the page. In one or two cases, the blocks were all locked up
together, and inked separately in the required tints, the page
being then printed at one impression, but as this.led to colour
intended for one block getting on the margin of the one next
to it, the practice was abandoned in the later pages in favour
of the usual one of working each colour separately. A Liber
MeditaUonum, printed in Paris by Claude Jaumer at the
close of the century, has the title-page, a four-piece ornamental
border enclosing a cut of the Crucifixion, with lettering above,
whoUy in red. A Spanish example of colour printing of similar
character is seen in Palentia's Vocabulario, printed at Seville
by Pedro de Colonia in 1490. The last printed page but one
is wholly in red. The colophon, in small Gothic type, is at
the top, and beneath is a very large device of the printer, with
white outlines on a solid ground. The style suggests that
Peter went from Cologne to Spain vi4 Italy.

It may be mentioned that Ratdolt, the Venetian printer

COLOUR PRINTING

just alluded to, also experimented in the direction of printing
in gold, although its use was confined to a dedicatory address
— ^like that to the Doge John Mocenico in the Euclid of 1482 —
in a special copy, intended for presentation to the patron under
whose auspices a particular work had been issued. He was,
in fact, a pioneer in many branches of colour printing, and
continued his work in that line after his return to Augsburg
in 1486. His Obsequiale Augustanum of 1487 has as a frontis-
piece a woodcut portrait of Bishop Friedrich von HohenzoUem,
with the arms of the see printed in black and coloured in red
and bistre by two tone blocks. In 1489 Ratdolt brought out
the Compilatio de astrorum Scientia of Leopold, son of the Duke
of Austria. This is a quarto volume, containing numerous
woodcuts, three of which are sometimes foimd printed in colours.
The British Museimi copy contains only one, on folio b ii,
in which two concentric circles printed in red are separated
by a ring of white. The Augsburg Missal of 1491 has the
Crucifixion plate, which faces the Canon of the Mass, printed
in black and tinted in red, blue, green and yeUow from four
other blocks, or perhaps with the aid of stencils. The Brescia
Missal of 1493, the Padua Missal of 1494, and the Passau
Missals of 1494 and 1498, have similar illustrations, coloured
in the same style, as well as some large two-colour initials
and the arms of the see in red and black, though the treatment
may vary in different copies. The Augsburg Breviary of 1495,
like one Ratdolt got out in Venice ten years before, has a
cut of the arms of the see on the back of the title, printed in
red and black. The Ratisbon Missal of 1496 has a full-page
woodcut of the Patron of the Church as a frontispiece, with
the arms of the see below, printed in black and red, some
yellow being added in places by hand. In 1499 Ratdolt
republished the Calendarium of Regiomontanus, in which is a
number of two-colour circtdar diagrams of the phases of the
moon, printed in red and black. An edition of this work,
illustrated in a similar style by twenty-one such diagrams,
had been issued at Venice in 1482 by J. L. Santritter.

THE OLD COLOUR PRINTER AND HIS WORK

Limited as his colour printing, and that of the fifteenth
century in general was, it must be remembered that Ratdolt
and his competitors were exercising a comparatively new
art, carried on with the aid of very crude mechanical appli-
ances, and poor though the colour work of these old typo-
graphers seems, when judged by present-day standards,
we must not forget that they were as men feeling their way,
amidst the as yet imperfectly understood intricacies of an
industry whose great possibilities were probably undreamt
of in those days. There seems no reason to doubt that all this
fifteenth century colour printing was done with wood blocks,
although in ordinary black-on-white printing, engravings on
metal were in occasional use.

Owing to the preference then shown for the colouring of the
illustrations and other decorative parts of a book, the results
of the pressmen's crude efforts at colour printing were some-
times supplemented by hand work, to such an extent that it
is often difficult to say where one process leaves off and the
other begins. By the close of the century, millions of printed
books had been put into circulation, and the public being
thus thoroughly familiarised with them, and becoming more
and more forgetful of their earlier MS. predecessors, ceased
to call for their colour ornamentation to so large an extent as
formerly, and thus printing in colour, other than in red from
type, printers' devices, head and tail pieces, etc., came practi-
cally to be abandoned. As regards this latter branch, it is
remarkable, considering the primitive nature of the appliances
then in use, what exact register was usually maintained between
the red and black passages in the text of a book, even in
cases where the colour changes two or three times in the same
line.

All the examples of colour printing that have been men-
tioned hitherto were produced in connection with printed
books, and it is very doubtfid whether any separate pictures,
printed in colours, were produced at this period. An excep-
tion may perhaps be made in favour of religious prints, and

COLOUR PRINTING

one example of this kind was included in the Schreiber collec-
tion, sold at Vienna last year. This was a print of St. Anthony
of Padua, about 13 x 10 inches, possibly of Spanish origin.
The colours used were dark violet, bluish-green, grey and red,
and it is considered that they were partly printed, and partly
applied from stencils. This print is attributed to the close of
the century, and Prof. Schreiber held it to be perhaps the
oldest coloured woodcut in existence. The same collection also
included a print in silver, from a wood or metal surface, of the
Virgin of Loretto, on a piece of silk, which was considered to
be of Italian origin, and to likewise date from the end of the
fifteenth century. A still more interesting example of the
same period, but of German origin, was a print on vellum,
10 X 6} inches, representing Christ on the Cross, with Mary
and John. The outline was coloured by four tone plates,
viz. : red, blue, yellow and green. It was probably intended
for use in some liturgical volume, to face the opening page of
the Canon of the Mass.

CHAPTER II

COLOUR PRINTINC IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH
CENTURIES

flE previous chapter dealt with
isolated and mostly unconnected
essays at printing in colours,
nearly all of which were obviously
in the nature of experiments.
Those M^o earned them out
probably felt that the time and
trouble bestowed upon them were
not compensated for by the

_ residt, and hence printers and

booksellers discontinued this class
of work in favour of the old method of hand-colouring. So far,
however, as printed books in general were concerned, even this,
from the commencement of the sixteenth century, was to all
intents and purposes confined to the beautiful Horse and other
devotional and hturgical works issued so profusely from Parisian
presses. The illustrations in these, generally full-page wood-cuts
or engravings on soft metal, were often completely covered by
a blaze of brilliant colour, frequently heightened by gold, and
the hopelessness of attempting to rival these effects by press
work no doubt led to the virtual disuse of colour printing of
the decorative order. Colour printing experiments were, it
is true, still made from time to time, and some of them wiU
be referred to presently, but from the colour printer's point of
view the early part of the sixteenth century is chiefly remark-
able as the period when the art of printing pictures in colours
took its rise, an art which is still practised on much the same
lines, though to a very limited extent, at the present day.

The method here alluded to is that which has alwajrs been

known by its Italian name of " Chiaroscuro." This term was

COLOUR PRINTING

that used by the printers themselves, as it occurs in Ugo da
Carpi's petition, and means literally *' clear-obscure." What
was intended to be conveyed by it was no doubt the fact that
in a picture of this character the lights and shadows are dis-
tributed to give effect to the composition, and so in the prints
the varying effects of light and shade are represented, not by
lines or cross-hatching, as in an ordinary engraving on wood or
metal, but by tones, in the shape of broad masses of colour,
produced by surface-printing from wood blocks ; these, how-
ever, were not intended to stand by themselves, but were
applied for the purpose of colouring an outline woodcut. A
chiaroscuro effect can, of course, be produced (as in aqua-
tinting) by the tones alone, without the aid of any outlines,
but this method was hardly ever followed by the early
chiaroscurists.

At the time when this branch of art had its birth, its expon-
ents were contemporary with some of the great masters of
painting and drawing, such as Cranach, Burgmair, Raphael,
Parmegiano, Titian, etc., and their compositions frequently
served as models, particularly in Italy. But there was this
distinction, that whereas these men were not merely designers,
but brilliant colourists as weU, the chiaroscuro artist made no
attempt to represent scenes or objects in their natural colours.
Later workers in the same field, like Savage, Baxter, and
Knight, did achieve this, but prior to the nineteenth century,
practically all the chiaroscurists were content to make use of
sombre neutral tints. Their range of colours was thus not a
very wide one, comprising only olive-green, reddish-brown,
dark brick red, and pale yellow. These, with sepia, and —
rarely — a gre3dsh-blue, seem to have been all that were used.
The colouring base was evidently mixed with oil, which has
in some cases penetrated the paper to such an extent that an
impression of the picture in reverse can be seen on the back of
the print. Some blocks, by the way, were actually engraved
with a design in reverse. The prints were produced with great
pressure, were almost embossed, in fact, so that in some

EARLY PRESSES AND PAPER

instances a cast could be taken from the deeply sunk outlines
of the design.

In this connection it may be mentioned that the wooden
press of the fifteenth century, which is represented in a Lyons
woodcut of 1499, remained practically unaltered until the early
part of the seventeenth century, when it was improved by
Blaeu of Amsterdam. Further improvements, embodying the
use of metal parts, were made by Annisson du Perron, of Paris,
and others, towards the end of the eighteenth century, but it
was not \mtil 1800 that the first iron press (the " Stanhope,"
invented by Earl Stanhope) came into use. All the books,
and most of the prints, which are mentioned in this and several
succeeding chapters, were therefore produced by an apparatus
which was much on the lines of the ordinary letter-copying
press, save that the spindle with the screw, in place of being
attached to the middle of the bar or handle, was fastened to
one end of it, the other being left free for the pressman to pull
over. As great pressure was applied to the platen in this way,
the upper part of the press was often stayed to the ceiling
above, in order to prevent it flying to pieces under the strain.
It is scarcely necessary to remark that all the paper in use
prior to the nineteenth century was made by hand, and until
the latter part of the eighteenth century was of the same kind,
i.e., " laid," that is, the wires of the mould were laid in position
by hand, instead of being woven into a more or less flexible
fabric in a loom. When the wire marks in a sheet of paper
were deep, the effect of applsdng masses of colour to the surface
was that the channels forming the marks were filled with ink,
thus giving the ribbed appearance often seen in prin^ts of the
kind under notice. The use of coloured paper for a print, in
place of printing a coloured background on white paper, seems
to have been very seldom resorted to. The writer has seen
only one early instance, i.e., a copy of Ugo's " St. John the
Baptist," which is printed on thin brown paper, only one tone
block (yellow) being used in addition to the outline woodcut.

Who first produced prints in chiaroscuro is not known with

COLOUR PRINTING

absolute certainty. The older writers on wood engraving
generally concurred in giving the credit of the invention to
Ugo da Carpi, an Italian. Hardly anj^hing is known concern-
ing this personage, not even the dates of his birth and death,
though he is said to have been of noble descent, and is usually
considered to have been a painter of average merit but obscure
fame, who flourished from about 1450 to 1520. He was
working the process in Venice in 1516, as in that year
he petitioned the Senate of that city — ^which seems to have
been the birthplace of copjrright privileges — ^for protection
against other artists who were producing prints by the chiaros-
curo method, of which he alleged he was the inventor. So
far as Italy was concerned, he was no doubt responsible for
the introduction of the process, but in other respects was only
a copyist himself. Ugo's petition was heard, and granted,
on July 24th, and set out that he had been a long time in the
city, and had discovered a new, useful, and beautiful way of
printing in chiaroscuro (trovato modo nuovo di siampare chiaro
et scuro, cosa nova . . . et bella . . . et tUile), and being in the
habit of engraving in this way, which had never been thought
of before by any other person, he requested the Senate to order
that no one should counterfeit any of his designs or engravings,
under pain of confiscation and a fine of 10 ducats for each such
count^eited impression, which fine was, as usual in such cases,
divided into three parts, one for the poor, the second for the
Judge who dealt with the case, and the third for the accuser,
i.e., Ugo, who described himself as " intagliadar de figure
de legno.*' The entry on the Register of Venice is quoted in
full by Gualadani in his Di Ugo da Carpi (1854), and the same
writer enumerates fifty prints attributed to Carpi, who is
supposed to have ended his days at Rome.

Bartsch, in his Peintre Graveur (1811) contested the idea
that Ugo was the inventor of the chiaroscuro method, prefer-
ring instead to think that the Germans had the priority, which
is almost certainly the case. The writer of the notice of
Jost de Necker, in the last edition (1904) of Bryan's Dictionary

THE RISE OF CHIAROSCURO

of Painters and Engravers, sa3rs, indeed, without qualification,
that Jost invented the process, but the statement probably
has no other foundation than the fact that a print of this sort,
dated 1510, was produced by him. There are, however, others
with dates still earlier, as will be seen. The art of producing
pictures in the chiaroscuro manner was evidently a develop-
ment from hand-colouring. A print by a German artist named
Mair, of Landshut (fl. 1492-1514) dated 1499, was long con-
sidered to be the earliest known in the chiaroscuro style, but
Ottley and others have pointed out that it is really only an
impression in black of an ordinary woodcut, on green paper,
with the lights indicated by hand. Durer's work does not seem
to have beai much reproduced in the chiaroscuro style, although
his large portrait of Ulrich Vambuler, 1522, was republished,
with the addition of tone plates, by some Dutchman in the
seventeenth century, and an impression in this form may be
seen at the British Museum. A picture of a rhinoceros, engraved
by Durer in 1515, was copied at Antwerp, and published there
the same year, tinted in the chiaroscuro manner, by H. Liefrinck
(Bartsch, vii, 147, 36). Some of Durer's original drawings,
however, distinctly suggest chiaroscuro work, such, for example,
as the ** Head of a Young Woman," which stands out against
a pinkish background, with the lights put in in white, and the
" Head of a Young Child," 1517. His " Study of a Naked Man,"
1526, and the " Study of a Nude Woman," with the doubtful
date of 1500, have slight greenish backgroimds with serrated
edges, suggestive of lights on chiaroscuro lines. This sort of
thing was practised at a much later period, as a woodcut of
the Virgin in the Schreiber collection, by Francisco Dentato,
who worked at Venice in 1540-50, was printed in a dark brown
tone, with the lights indicated by hand.

What name was originally given to this class of work in
Germany is not known, the present one, " clair-obscur," being
obviously only a rendering of the Italian term. The earliest
chiaroscuro print mentioned by Bartsch, in support of his
theory that the Germans were the first to exploit this phase

2-(2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

of art, is Lucas Cranach's " Repose in Egypt/' dated 1509
(B. vii, 279, 3). This artist lived, mostly at Wittenberg,
from 1472 to 1553, and held the appointment of Court Painter
to the House of Saxony. The fact that the black or outline
block of a chiaroscuro print bears a particular date is not,
however, evidence that the tinted impressions are contem-
porary with it. A few years may have elapsed between the
one and the other. The prevalent tone of the German chiaros-
curos is brown, and although it is impossible to lay down a
hard and fast rule, it may be said that this colour distinguishes
most of the early German work (also some of the later Dutch
and French) as opposed to the greenish tone common to the
Italian prints. Not more than one or two tone blocks were
used at first, the Cranach print just alluded to having only one.
A " Venus " by the same artist is dated 1506 on the black block,
being thus probably the oldest dated print of this character,
although the coloured impression (tinted in brown, as usual), may
not have appeared until 1509 or later. Cranach's woodcut of
" St. Christopher " is in three states in the British Museum copies,
the earliest in a greyish tone, the two later in different shades of
brown. A very fine and unusual example is the print of an armed
man on horseback, in which the black impression is coloured
from two tone blocks, one in dark blue and the other in gold.

Contemporary with Cranach were several other German
artists who engraved in chiaroscuro. Prominent among these
is Hans Baldimg (1475-1545) who worked chiefly at Strasburg.
He produced a chiaroscuro print of " An Incantation " as early
as 1510, which Bartsch mentions under " Grun " — supposed to
have been a sort of nickname for this artist (B. vii, 319, 55).
It is a large print, about 16 x 12 inches, tinted with light sepia,
or — ^in another state — ^in brown. Baldung's " Adam and Eve "
is a very fine example of the style (B. vii, 306, 3), of about the
same size, and printed on a brownish paper, which thus imparts
one tone, whilst a second is supplied from a block printed in a
brownish shade. Another woodcut by Baldung, dated 1512,
was produced in black on brown paper.

EARLY GERMAN CHIAROSCURO WORK

Jost de Necker, the alleged inventor of chiaroscuro, was a
native of Antwerp, but went to Germany and settled about
1510 at Augsburg, where was also the residence of that well-
known painter and engraver, Hans Burgmair (1473-15 — ) . Jost
died in 1561. Two at least of his colour prints after Burgmair
are dated, on the black or outline block, 1508. One is an
impression, tinted in red, of the " St. George " (B. vii, 208, 23),
but in another impression, in a green-grey tone, the outline
cut bears no date. A still better known picture is that of the
Emperor of Germany (Maximilian I) represented on horseback
in full armour (B. vii, 21 1 , 32) . The original date on the outline
block, 1508, appears without the " " in a reddish-brown
impression in chiaroscuro, but in a later one the date re-appears
as 1518. In the former the name, " J. de Necker," is printed
in black at the bottom of the print. In still another state,
only represented at the British Museum by a reproduction,
the tone block was printed in gold, in the style of the Cranach
print already mentioned. In another engraving after Burg-
mair, which contains some architectural detail (B. vii, 215, 40)
tones were printed over the woodcut in light brown and pur-
plish grey ; in a second state, the brown was discarded for
yellow, and the purplish tone for a green shade ; whilst in a
third variety, more pronounced shades of green and yellow
were used. There was very little detail in the outline cut for
this print, and a copy in the Heseltine collection, dated 1510,
is printed in three shades of grey only. Burgmair's fine
portrait of Pope Julius II (1511) — a circular print of about
9 inches diameter (B. vii, 212, 33) — exists at the British Museum,
in the chiaroscuro state, only in a reproduction by the Royal
Printing Office at Berlin. The grey tone block greatly supple-
ments the lights and details of the original woodcut. A still
finer portrait by Burgmair is that of J. Baumgartner, 1512
(B. vii, 212, 34). Jost's work on this is in tones of greenish
grey, and his blocks furnish most of the detail in the picture,
the original woodcut giving httle more than a bare outline.

Among other famous names in the annals of early sixteenth

COLOUR PRINTING

century German wood engraving is that of Albrecht Altdorfer
of Ratisbon (? 1480-1538), who was also a painter and architect
of considerable merit. Sixty-eight woodcuts are known to
have been executed by him, and of these the most interesting
from our point of view is No. 52 in the Ust given in Bryan :
" Our Lady of Ratisbon," c. 1520. From the colour printer's
standpoint this is, perhaps, the finest of all the early German
prints in chiaroscuro. It is of large size, some 15 X 10 inches,
with an ornamental border, and is in at least two states. The
original impression preserved at the British Museum is some-
what " smudgy " in appearance, owing to imperfect inking and
defective register. Hie black outline cut is coloured by no
less than five tones, i.e., two browns, a grey, a yellow and a blue.
In a private collection at Berlin there is a copy of this print
in different and brighter colours, viz. : red, blue, green, yellow
and brown, thus constituting a distinct departure from the
usual sombre tints of the artist in chiaroscuro.

Another early German worker in this branch of art was J . W.
Wechtlin, sometimes known as " Pilgrim," a painter and wood
engraver at Strasburg in the first half of the sixteenth century.
One of his prints in chiaroscuro, " The Crucifixion," is in the
usual greenish-grey shade, but like Altdorfer's " Virgin," has an
ornamental border, which in this case is in four pieces. This
border is also used on another print. An interesting chiaro-
scuro print of Wechthn's is " The Virgin " (B. vii, 450, 2),
printed in a greyish-blue tint, the tone block supplying much of
the detail of the picture, such as the hills and clouds seen in the
background. In another case, the " Pyrgo Teles " print, solid
blacks occur in the otherwise cloudy background, which is
printed in a greenish grey tone. In the '* St. Stephen," the
sides of the " Crucifixion " border are re-used, but the top and
bottom are different. The " Skull " print (B. vii, 451, 6-7) is
in two varieties of greenish grey, but in a third state (9) some
of the detail in the background is different.

It is practically certain that the colours in chiaroscuro
prints were apphed by the press, and were not supplemented

COLOURING BY STENCIL

either by hand-colouring or by stencilling. This latter process,
however, as being a sort of connecting link between hand and
press colouring, demands a few words of notice. It seems to have
been largely used in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries for colouring playing-cards, and to a lesser extent
for colouring prints and book illustrations. Among Jost
Anunan's cuts in Schopper's Panoplia (Frankfort, 1568), is
one representing the " Briefinaler," a term which modem
dictionaries render by " card-painter." The size and shape
of the brush he is wielding leave no doubt that he is engaged in
stencilling colour on the prints piled on the table at which he
is seated. A well-known French print of the latter part of
the seventeenth century, reproduced as the frontispiece to
D'AUegmagne's Les Cartes i jauer (1906), shows the operations
of stencilling in full detail, as carried on at a Parisian pla3ang-
card factory. So far as earlier practice is concerned, the
Cronica Cronicarium abrige (Paris, 1521) furnishes an inter-
esting example. The page is a very large one, measuring
about 25 X 20 inches in its imcut state, and the work contains
many circular portraits, \^ inches diam., some small rect-
angular views of towns, 3x2 inches, and several genealogical
trees. A multitude of small circular spaces, j-inch diam.,
enclosing the names of members of Royal Houses, etc., are
coloured yellow throughout, and green and purple are used
on the portraits and views. The nature of the work makes
it almost certain that the colours were applied by stencils,
although the red borders round the portraits must have been
added, in part at any rate, by hand, as the circles are imbroken.
The colours are somewhat muddy. Another Parisian book
of Chronicle type {Regisire des Ans, 1532) has, in some copies,
the woodcuts — views of cities, portraits of kings, coats of arms,
etc. — tinted in three or four colours in a similar manner,
probably with the aid of stencils. A print of a German peasant
woman by W. Drechsel (c. 1550) in the British Museum, has
some colouring in parts in four or five tints, which were most
likely stencilled. It may be of interest to point out that in a MS.

COLOUR PRINTING

in the British Museum, dated 1518, and concerned with certain
imaginary dialogues between Francis I of France and Julius
Caesar, an artist — supposed to be one Godef roy — has executed
some beautiful little miniatures in the style known as Cam^e-
gris or grisaille. The outlines are drawn with pen and ink
after the manner of a woodcut, and then tinted in the chiaro-
scuro style in three shades of bluish grey, with the high lights
left uncoloured {i.e., white). The idea was probably derived
from German work, and the colouring adapted to French
notions of art.

We may now proceed to a consideration of Italian work in
chiaroscuro, which may be regarded as following — as it was,
indeed, no doubt copied from — the German in general style
and method of treatment, though the colour scheme was usually
different. The designs were in most cases furnished by the great
masters directly to the engravers. Parmegiano, for instance,
seems to have made a business of publishing his designs in
chiaroscuro, employing men like Ugo and Antonio to do the
actual engraving of the blocks. According to Bartsch, two
chiaroscuro prints by Ugo da Carpi were dated 1518. A copy
of one of these, the " Death of Ananias," is in the British
Museum, although the lower part of the inscription, bearing
the date, has been cut off. Of Ugo's work as a chiaroscurist we
have, however, other evidence, in the brief inscription, " Ugo,"
which is found on some of his prints, or the longer ones, such as
" Raphael Urbino per Ugo da Carpi," which occur on others.
The number of tone blocks used on any one print is not large,
two or three at the most, excluding the outline cut in black,
and whilst the impressions of some of them constitute what the
print collector terms " states," i.e., show tlie picture in various
stages of development, others demonstrate that it was a
conunon practice to print the same block in different tones for
successive copies of the picture. The high lights were rendered
by either allowing patches of the white surface of the paper to
show, or by printing a very faint tint from a block.

Another Italian worker in this field, contemporary with

ANTONIO AND ANDREANI, CHIAROSCURISTS

Ugo, was Antonio de Trento of Mantua (1508-?). He was a
pupil of Parmegiano (Francesco Mazzola), and one day, about
1530, he was missing from that artist's studio, a number of
drawings and sketches disappearing with him. A few years
after, an artist began publishing etchings at Paris, executed
in a style identical with that of Antonio, but bearing the name
of Fantose. It is now generally assumed that the two are
identical. Some two centuries later, a number of Parme-
giano's designs, supposed to have been among those thus
abstracted from his studio, were discovered by Count Zanetti
(to be mentioned in the next chapter) amongst the collections
of the Earl of Arundel, and were conveyed by him back to
Italy, where they furnished material for his own productions in
the chiaroscuro style. Antonio's prints are not very numerous,
and are mostly distinguished by heavy black outlines.
Many of them, like the '* Circe," and " Christ in the House of
Simon," were used again by Andreani some fifty years later ;
in these particular instances, in 1602 and 1609 respectively.
From the time of the death of Ugo, or at any rate from that of
the disappearance of Antonio, the art of printing pictures in
the chiaroscuro style seems to have been discontinued in Italy,
as in Germany, and was not revived in the former country
imtil the time when we may assume that some of the old blocks
were discovered, and preparations made to put the art in
practice again, by Andreani.

Whatever views may be held with regard to the precise parts
played by Ugo and Antonio on the chiaroscuro stage, there
can be but httle doubt respecting that of Andrea Andreani
of Mantua (1560-1623), as a majority of the existing early
ItaUan prints in chiaroscuro were, if not actually engraved,
at any rate printed by him. Many of the suites of blocks
engraved by the two older artists just mentioned seem to have
found their way into his hands towards the dose of the sixteenth
century, and in several cases he engraved on them his well-
known monogram of the double A, frequently with the addition
of a date. The dates found on his work range between 1583

COLOUR PRINTING

and 1610, and he, like his predecessors, mostly copied the
designs of the great masters of art. Possibly some of them,
A. Casolani for instance, were interested in the sale of the
prints. Several of the older blocks that were re-used by
Andreani show signs of being "wormed," such as that of
" Raphael and his Master." In those prints that he engraved
himself, he showed decided leanings towards large compositions.
An early example of this is his chiaroscuro reproduction of
Domenico Beccafumi's mosaic picture of the " Sacrifice of
Abraham," on the pavement of Siena Cathedral. This is in
ten sections, of which the two laigest, composing the central
portion, each measure about 36 x 18 inches, the complete
picture being some 7 feet long by 3 feet high. The outline is
in black as usual, tinted in sepia and light brown. This print
was published in November, 1586, and dedicated to the Duke
of Urbino. Three years later another very laige one was
produced, the subject being the " Overthrow of Pharaoh/'
after Titian. It measures about 4^ x 2^ feet, but is not nearly
so good an example as the other. It appears to have been
printed from single blocks, the print not being in sections,
but if this was the case, probably two pulls of the press were
necessary for each impression. The " Entombment of Christ,"
after G. Scolari, is an upright print about 20 x 30 inches,
whilst the " Rape of the Sabines," issued in 1585, is in three
sections, covering together about a square yard. From it
we learn that Andrea was both printer and engraver (earn
incisit impressU), Like many other print producers, he found
it convenient, and probably remimerative, to dedicate his
pictures to various friends or patrons. The inscriptions are
xylographic, the lettering being usually in a large script char-
acter. A passage in that on the " Triumphs of Julius Caesar "
(1599) informs us that the work was " presented in a new
style," i.e., drawn and engraved on wood. This is, perhaps,
Andreani's finest piece, and extends to nine numbered sections,
each about 15 inches square, without reckoning the two which
are occupied by the dedication and ornament. The print of

SOME OLD ITALIAN CHIAROSCURISTS

"Love Binding Virtue" (Florence, 1585), is dedicated to
Francisco de Medici, Duke of Tuscany. An interesting and
unusual print is the " Allegory of Death," after G. F. Fortimo.
The central portion represents a wheel, provided with a movable
hub in the form of a ring, enclosing a skeleton holding a
tablet with the syllable " mus." Along the spokes are Latin
inscriptions which all terminate in words ending with " mus,"
so that the hub can be turned to complete any of them, such
as unde superbi{mus) . A companion print, " The Allegory of
Christianity," after Battiste Franco (Mantua, 1610), is dedi-
cated to Louis Gonzaga, and has an inscription not only at the
foot but also round the margins of the print. In it Andrea
saj^ that having long wished to perpetuate some noble design,
he finally decided to make use of this, and had executed it
in the new style of engraving and printing from wood. This
print also bears the significant remark, " Superiorum premisum"
{sic), denoting that it had been passed by the ecclesiastical
Censor.

Bartsch mentions a few other Italian chiaroscurists, but in a
work of this nature it is not necessary to enumerate the names
and productions of all those who practised that art. G. N.
Vicentino engraved in this style in Bologna about 1530, but
his prints do not call for detailed notice, presenting hardly
anything out of the common. Parm^iano furnished some
designs for him, and in one of them, " Christ Healing Lepers,"
Vicentino used two shades of purplish mauve, an imusual colour
for this class of print. The same colouring appears in Maturin's
" Claeha." Several of Vicentino's sets of blocks were re-used
by Andreani, who generally added his monogram and a date.
Reference may also be made to the work of Bartholomeo
Coriolano of Bologna, who engraved many prints in chiaroscuro
during the first half of the seventeenth century, one of which
is dated from Rome in 1627. He seems to have been fond of
ringing the changes on the tones. Of a single small print of
the Virgin and Child (1630) there are ten states or varieties in
the British Museum, one or two of which are printed on blue

COLOUR PRINTING

paper. Most of his prints are after designs by Guido Reni,
and some of the ovals, such as the " St. Mary " from the
Church of St. Thomas in Bologna, have decorative ornament
in the spandrels between the picture and its square frame.
Coriolano often used what in these days would be termed
a ruled groundwork, for shadows or broad spaces in only a
single colour, a style which reminds one of the title-page to
Goetz' Emperors. For several of his productions he would
appear to have found a patron, and in such case the names
of himself and Reni, which usually occupy a couple of small
panels, are replaced by the name, titles and arms of the
person to whom the picture was dedicated. One large alle-
gorical design is dedicated to the Senate of Bologna, and from
an inscription at the foot we learn that it was pubhshed " ex
Typographia Ferroniana, 1653." The fact that it had been
approved by the Censor is also mentioned. This engraver's
largest chiaroscuro is probably that after Reni's ** Victory
of Jupiter over the Giants," which is in four sections, measuring
over all about 40 x 24 inches. It is in two or three shades of
brown. Pope Urban VIII was so pleased with Coriolano's
print of Reni's '' Madonna " that he made the engraver a
Knight of the Order of Loreto, and on those prints produced
after 1640 he accordingly puts '* Eq." after his name.

We may next mention briefly the work of Fredk. Bloemaert,
in Holland, and F. Busingk, in France. The former (1600-?)
was located in Utrecht, and engraved several prints in chiaro-
scuro in the ItaUan style, using not more than two or three tone
blocks. His work in this Une is of special interest, because
in some cases he used the blocks for colouring engravings on
metal, such as etchings, as well as woodcuts. This method
of producing coloured pictures became more popular, however,
in the following century, in the hands of Le Sueur and others.
But Bloemaert was not the first to use it, as Mr. Hinde, in his
work on Engraving and Etchings mentions an etching dated
1538, representing a pair of lovers, which was coloured by a
tone block. This print is now at Hambuig, and was produced

DUTCH AND FRENCH CHIAROSCURO

within about twenty years after the invention of etching.
Bloemaert's father, Abraham, was himself an artist of some
note in his day. Many of his designs were engraved by his
son, and in 1740 a collection of them was pubhshed at Amster-
dam by R. and J. Ottens in a large folio volume, with the title
of Oorsprankelyk en vermaard Konstryk Te Kenboek, The
plates are in general ordinary line engravings, but in a few
cases a duplicate impression is included, coloured in brown
from a tone block engraved in the chiaroscuro style. The
frontispiece to Part I, in which two tones of brown were used
(probably representing the elder Bloemaert at work in his
studio, surrounded by models of the human figure), is the best
plate of this kind in the book, and there is also a portrait of
the artist, tinted in the same manner. One of F. Bloemaert's
best prints is the " Holy Family," after L. Busis, and the
same picture was afterwards issued by Busingk. This latter
engraver was bom at Minden in 1590, but ultimately found
his way to France, and was working at Paris in 1640. He
is considered the introducer into France of the chiaroscuro
method of producing pictures. Many of his prints were
after Geo. Lalleman. There is a series of half-length figures
of Christ and the Apostles, in two brown tones, that being the
colour mostly affected by this artist, who thus leant to the
German rather than to the Italian style. In a few of his prints,
however, there is a greenish-grey tone. His outline cuts are
frequently of a bold coarse character. A fairly representative
example of his style is the " Virgin and Infant Christ," in two
tones; an oval within a plain rectangular frame, with the
spandrels filled with a ground colour. This bears the date of
1623. According to Papillon, some of these prints were pro-
duced in three colours, on a special type of press invented by
Lalleman. The earliest form of this was a triple press, as it
had three platens side by side, all operated by one puU of the
bar, but as the impressions produced were not sharp enough
to please him, Lalleman made another press, approximating
more to the style of that used for copperplate printing. It

COLOUR PRINTING

had three tables and six rollers, and reqmred four men to work
it. Each of the three blocks was inked by a different man,
whilst the other turned the cross or handle, and thus gave the
three impressions simultaneously. Both presses and prints
seem to have been conmiercial failures.

Prints in chiaroscuro were evidently not intended for use
as book illustrations, but for sale as separate plates, or occa-
sionally in sets. This was the rule, but like others it admits
of exceptions, and a noteworthy one is furnished by Hubert
Goetz* Lives of the Roman Emperors. There were several
editions of this work, of which that published at Antwerp in
1557 is the best. It is a folio volume, with an engraved title
in rococo style, embodying a central panel with portrait. The
outline block is in black, tinted in brown, the whole being on
a background of narrow horizontal stripes of green, the inter-
stices between which are also brown. The work is illustrated
by 155 circular medallion portraits, about five inches in diam.,
and many more were probably intended, as a number of
spaces are left blank. The actual outlines of the portrait
appear to have been printed from metal surfaces engraved
in relief, and are tinted in two shades of brown, the inscrip-
tion round each being in white lettering. J. Gietlengen,
of Courtrai, engraved them. For the edition of Goetz' works,
printed at Antwerp by Moretus in 1645, the portraits were
re-engraved on wood by C. Segher, and were printed in black
on a plain yellow ground. The original blocks, which cost
six florins each to engrave, are still preserved in the Plantin
Museum at Antwerp. Another member of the Goetz family,
Hendrik (1558-1617), engraved a number of designs in chiaro-
scuro : Bartsch mentions twenty-one, mostly classical subjects
in black and two tones, yellowish-browns and blue-greens
being the colours employed. There is a good series of ovals,
mythological deities, 14 x 10 inches, and a large print of
Hercules killing Cacus, dated 1588, but none of them present
any special feature of technical interest ; the style leans to the
German rather than to the Italian school. In several cases,

THE COLOUR-BORDERED TITLE-PAGE

proofs on blue paper of the black outline block have been
preserved, which suggest that Goetz tried this method of
getting colour effect in his prints. Two or three designs by
P. P. Rubens are said to have been engraved in chiaroscuro
by C. Segher, including the portrait of a " Man with a Beard."
The ornamental borders on title-pages were occasion-
ally coloured in the chiaroscuro style in the early days of
that art, and a Strasburg printer named John Schott has a
reputation for producing books with colour decorations of this
kind. Seeing that they both worked in the same place and at
the same time, it is not unreasonable to assume that Hans
Baldung may have engraved, or at least inspired, the colour
blocks, though the woodcut designs they supplemented were,
in the later books, probably by Hans Weiditz. The earliest
work in which a chiaroscuro title-page appeared is perhaps the
Leciura super liber decretalium of Nic. Panormitanus, which
was produced by Schott in November, 1510. Here the decora-
tive border to the title-page (the volume is of folio size) is
printed in black and dark brown, in the usual German style.
The date on the black block is 1511. The blocks on this
particular title-page were afterwards used by R. Beck, another
Strasburg printer, in his AlexandHes (1513), but in this case
the colours were the more common red and black. The border
design is a woodland scene, with trees and birds, and a group
of animals below, with the Imperial arms and the words
** Cmn privilegio Imperiale." The surface of the colour block
is nearly solid, the lights being only very slightly indicated.
It encloses the lettering of the title, which is also in red and black.
The black block was printed last, and in the British Museimi copy
of the work the red one shows signs of having been badly inked.
A smaller example of similar character is seen in J. Lupus'
De LiberiaU Ecclesiastica, printed by Schott in February,
15H. This is a small octavo volume, having the title within
a border of Holbeinesque character, representing a wrestling
match, printed in red, with the high lights only faintly indi-
cated. The tone block was evidently printed first, and this

COLOUR PRINTING

practice was followed in other cases, the colour blocks being
impressed on the paper first, and the outline cut registered
with them. In the example under notice, the lettering of the
title is in red and black, each portion being worked with its
own colour block. In 1515, an edition of Ovid's Metafnar-
phases was printed by Schott for P. Goetz, and this has a
similar woodcut bordered title-page in red and black. Brunfel's
PrecaUones Biblica, produced by Schott in 1528, also has a
woodcut border to the title, printed over a red ground, although
the tone block for the latter seems to have little or no engraving
upon it. Every page of this little volume is surroimded by a
woodcut border, but printed in black only. The lettering of
the title is in red and black, as in Lupus' book. In Brunfel's
Herbarum, printed by Schott in 1530-2 in two voliunes, the
title of the first is in red and black lettering, surrounded by a
woodcut border printed in black, but on the third leaf is a
full-page coat of arms (10 x 6^- inches) printed in red and black
in the chiaroscuro manner. Another example of Schott's
colour work is in a different style. This is the map of Lorraine
in an edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, printed in 1520. The
volume is a royal folio, and the map is therefore of large size.
It is surrounded with a border of shields printed in red and
brown, and pierced out in places for armorial devices, such as
lions, fishes, etc. The mountains, rivers and forests are also
printed in brown, the last named being indicated by rows of
little trees. At the top of the map are two shields, one in
brown on a red ground, the other in red on a brown ground,
the lettering on the map being in red and black. Red seems
to be the colour that was printed first, followed by brown,
black coming last.

If, as just suggested, Baldung originated these title-page
borders in chiaroscuro, the work must have been afterwards
carried on by some other engraver, as Baldung migrated to
Freiburg about 1511. Weiditz was in Augsburg until 1522, so
that any chiaroscuro title borders printed by Schott between
these dates were probably from stock blocks. Weiditz, in his

THE EARLY 16th CENT. COLOUR PRINTER

turn, may have derived inspiration for engraving for colour
work from Ratdolt, who continued to print in Augsburg until
his death in 1510, and employed colour decoration in several of
his books. For example, the Constance Missal and the Passau
Missal, produced by him in 1505, have large ornamental wood-
cut initials, and the arms of the see, printed in red and black
combined, and his large device at the end is likewise in red and
black. Ratdolt also brought out a Constance Breviary in 1509,
on the reverse of the first leaf of which is a large woodcut of the
arms of the see, with much ornamental detail, shield, mitre,
bands, etc., being printed in red, black and yellow, though
the last may perhaps have been stencilled. The red and black
device occurs at the end of this volimie also.

The first half of the sixteenth century was one of the best
periods in the history of typography, not only for the beauty
of the lettering, and the almost faultless technique of the
general arrangement, but also for the wealth of pictorial
embellishment and ornamental detail which the great printers
of that day lavished upon their productions. It was essen-
tially the era of the woodcut-bordered title-page, although
examples are not uncommon in fifteenth century books. This
border lent itself particularly well to the application of colouring,
and hence the majority of examples of colour printing at this
period are found in connection with book titles. The two-
colour title-page, i.e., that in which the lettering was printed
in red and black, was so common that it is not necessary to
do more than refer to it here, and as red was at all periods the
most common variant from black in book work, examples of
it will not be dealt with in detail, except in a few special cases,
as not merely the lettering in titles, but printers' devices,
colophons, rubrics, headings, and initials in red were in use by
almost every printer of note at this time. Typography in red
and black always makes a brave show, especially when the
type is of Gothic character and plentifully besprinkled with the
historiated (or pictorial) and the cribl6 initials — with the letter
showing against a backgroimd of white stipple — which form so

COLOUR PRINTING

prominent a feature in the books of this period. An opening
passage in capitals, with an ornamental headpiece or initial,
was often printed in red, with fine effect, in some of the
old Greek folios, such as Callierges' EtymologUum Magnum
(Venice, 1499, one of four volumes similarly decorated), or,
on a less ambitious scale, in the 5. Oecumcnius Commentaria
(Verona, 1532). Commentaries on Civil or Canon Law, such
as the Codices of Justinian, or the Decretals of Pope Gregory
IX, with their frequent rubrics, provided splendid opportunities
for the use of colour, which the printers were not slow to take
advantage of.

Some of these volumes are almost pictorial in their display
of t}^graphic colour effect. Take, for instance, the work on
Justinian's codes, known as the Valumen, in the edition printed
by A. Bocardo at Paris, for T. Kerver and others, in 1511.
This is a quarto of about 7^ x 6 inches type measurement,
and nearly every one of its 650 and odd pages is printed
in red and black Gothic type, usually in four columns, with a
beautiful series of cribl^ initials. The opening at folio 197 —
to quote only one example — contains a dozen of these, in four
different sizes, printed in black; nineteen smaller outline
initials in red, in two sizes ; two dozen paragraph marks, and
eighteen textual passages of greater or less length, all in red,
and in three sizes of type. A couple of pages like this would
give a compositor a lot of trouble to make up even now, yet
the book goes on in that style through himdreds of pages, the
two colours being generally well registered, and the ink retaining
some of its gloss to this day. Similar work, on a larger scale,
and in Roman letter, is seen in an edition of the Institutes
published by Ausultus at Lyons, about 1557. The type
measurement of a page is 15 x 12 inches, and the initials are
historiated, the rubrics being largely in italics. The general
appearance of the work is more massive and dignified than the
other, but although the passages printed in red are not quite
so frequent, yet another arrangement that was adopted made
the compositor's work more difficult than ever. The references

COLOUR PRINTING IN ALMANACS

to the marginal notes in the outer columns are single lower-case
letters, printed in red, at the end of the word or passage
commented on. In many cases there are dozens of these
letters on a page, every one of which had to be accurately
registered into the tiny white square reserved for it. In
looking at such books as these, one cannot but feel respect for
the patience and skill of the old-time printer.

Before leaving this branch of the subject, one other example
may be mentioned, the Almanac, which for centuries was
printed in red and black in nearly every European country. A
single instance will suffice to illustrate the complexity of the
work its preparation often called for. In Stoeffler's Calen-
darium Romanum, printed by Koebel at Oppenheim in 1518,
many pages are divided by rule work into hundreds of little
square spaces, each containing a numeral in black and an
astronomical sign in red. The volume has also four fuU-page
cuts of astronomical instruments, printed in red and black.

Book illustrations, printed in any other colour than black,
are not common, though printers' devices are frequent enough.
An early example of genuine pictorial work occurs in a book
on the Spanish Order of Santiago, printed at Seville in 1503,
by J. Pegnitzer, of Nuremberg. On the reverse of the seventh
leaf is a full-page cut of the Saint on horseback (8|^ X 5^
inches) printed in red and black, in a maimer somewhat
suggestive of the chiaroscuro style, though it was probably
quite an independent effort on the part of the engraver and
printer. There are also two large devices of the Order in
red. The " piercing out " of blocks for colour work was in
common use more than four centuries ago, and a case in point
occurs in H. de Montagnone's Epytama SapienHe, printed by
P. Liechtenstein at Venice in 1505. The reverse of the last
leaf has a full-page device of the printer, a shield, with a solid
ground, of which one-half is red, the other black, pierced
in two places, in exact shape and size, for the insertion of
two small identical blocks of vases, surmoimted by orreries.
On the red half of the shield the vase, etc., is printed in black,

3— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

and on the black half in red, a similar, but larger block above
the shield being in black, over-printed with a diagonal red
band. The same two-colour device appears in this printer's
books as late as 1538. Another printer's trade-mark in two
colours occurs in the first volume of an edition of the Bible in
French, printed by Bartholomew Verard at Paris about 1514.
The letterpress matter above it, in large Gothic (xylographic ?)
type, is also in red and black.

Sometimes, as in the Repos de Conscience (Trepperel, Paris,
c. 1505), a single woodcut out of a large number is printed in
red for no apparent reason. In Sabellicus' Chronicle (Lam-
pugnano, Venice, c. 1508), the lettering on both the first, or
title, and the last, or colophon pages, is printed wholly in red,
and enclosed in an ornamental woodcut border in black. In
this instance the colophon is itself engraved, in large xylo-
graphic Gothic characters. In the edition of Caesar's works,
printed by A. de Zannis de Portesio at Venice in 1517, this
arrangement is reversed ; the upper half of the title-page is
occupied by a large woodcut, printed in black, within an
ornamental four-piece border in red, there being also a line in
large red Gothic letter just below, followed by several lines in
black, diminishing in length in the manner conunon in that
day, below all being a small red cross. The same woodcut
and border are repeated on folio 1 of the text, but in black only.
Senfel's Liber Selectarum Cantiorum, printed at Augsburg in
1520 by Grimm and Wursung, exhibits a reversal of this
arrangement, the colour work being on an inside page. This
is, perhaps, the most elaborate piece of book work in colours
that has come down to us from the period under review. The
volume is dedicated to Matthias Lang, Archbishop of Salzburg,
and the front of the dedication leaf is occupied by his arms, on
a shield surmounted by a cross, above being a Cardinal's hat,
the pendant cords and tassels of which fill up the sides of the
page. The hat is supported by two cherubs or naked boys,
a decorative motif which is usually associated with the work
of Hans Weiditz. Seven colours are used, viz. : red, grey, blue,

16th cent, colour-decorated books

flesh-pink, gold, black and a greenish-yellow. The cross is in
gold, and an attempt was made to represent the jewels in it
in their natural colours, but they are so small that the tinting
is hardly perceptible. The hat and tassels are, of course, in
red, and there is a sort of shading following the latter, printed
in grey. The cherubs and their scanty garments are in five
colours, the sashes pendant from them being differently tinted
in each case. The quarterings on the shield, lions rampant,
are in red on a gold groimd. Grey seems to have been the first
colour printed and black the last. It would be interesting to
know whether Weiditz was responsible for his design (it is
considered to be his) being reproduced in colour in this remark-
able way. The tints are solid and the impression is heavy
in some parts of the picture. The back of the leaf, which is of
the ordinary book paper of the period, is occupied by the
dedication, a page of black-letter type.

A Breviarum Romanum in 12mo., issued sine nota, but
referred to c. 1520, contains half a dozen full-page cuts, within
borders which are apparently made up from type ornaments,
an early example of this class of work. Some of these borders
are printed in both red and black, and the text of the volume
is, of course, in these colours throughout. Another similar
example occurs in the Breviary printed at Venice by J. Pentius
in 1526. Here the borders are made up of small " flowers,"
and several of them are in both red and black. An unusual
combination of colours occurs on the title-page of Amb. Leo's
opus QuasHonum, printed at Venice in 1523 by B. and M. de
Vitali. The lettering is in red, within an ornamental woodcut
border printed in blue, an almost solitary instance of the use
of that colour for such a purpose.

Another interesting piece of French colour work occurs in
J. de Guyse's Chroniques de Haynau (Paris, G. du Pr6, c. 1532).
The title-page to Volume I is surrounded with a woodcut
border in four pieces, the design being of the usual Francis I
type. The top and bottom sections have a circular portrait
at each end, so that there are portraits at the four comers of

COLOUR PRINTING

the page. Each of them is coloured in red, beneath the black,
from another block, which was possibly intended to impart
a chiaroscuro effect to the portraits, but if so, the engraver
evidently did not understand the principles of that branch of
his art, as the red block is merely a collection of broken lines,
and thus obscures and confuses the black outlines of the original
woodcut. The title* lettering within the border is also in red.
On the title-page of Volume II the arrangement is repeated,
but on that of Volume III, though the same border is used,
it and the enclosed lettering are wholly in black. The title
to J. Caviceo's Le Peregrin (Lyons, C. Carcand, 1533) is in
red and black lettering within an ornamental border, which
encloses the printer's device in black, in its turn enclosing a
red heart on a shield, ensigned by a crown. A volume of
Italian poetry, // Primo Libro de Reali, by Altissimo (Venice,
G. A. de N. de Sabio, 1534), has the fine woodcut border to
the title, a design consisting of grotesque animals and hirnian
figures, printed entirely in red.

A curious bit of red and black work is found in the Due
Trattaii of G. Camillo, printed at Venice in 1543. On the
obverse of folio 13 the text, in black, is arranged in the form
of a circle, beneath which (i,e,, under the black lettering) is
a wheel printed in red, with a sentence, also in red, at the end
of each of the spokes.

This little list of examples of bookwork in colour began with
a Spanish publication, and it now ends with another, viz. : P.
Medina's Arte de Navegar (Valladolid, F. de Cordova, 1545).
The section devoted to " Altura del Sol " has a fine frontis-
piece, including a large figure of the Sun in red, with red and
black lettering beneath. Systematic research, which would,
however, call for the expenditure of a great deal of time, would no
doubt bring to light many other, and possibly more elaborate
specimens of the colour work of this period. The catalogue
of the Caxton Exhibition, held in London in 1877, mentions
two book-titles printed in colours, which the writer has not been
able to trace, one, dated 1522, from a Wittenberg press, and

THE OLD ENGLISH COLOUR PRINTER

another by H. Schahsser, Munich, 1524. Colour effect in books
was sometimes, though very rarely indeed, attained by printing
the text on coloured paper, as in a copy — ^possibly unique —
of Celestina's Tragicomedia, issued at Venice in 1553, and in an
undated Barker-printed edition of the Book of Common
Prayer, attributed to 1578, a copy of which is at Cambridge,
printed on green paper.

Although books printed in France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
and the Netherlands have been quoted in connection with
various kinds of colour work, England has not been mentioned
at all, for the sufficient reason that there is practically nothing
to talk about ; in fact, from the time when the Boke of St.
Albans was published, down to the issue of Le Blon's Cohritto,
a period of nearly 240 years, the voice of the colour printer
was scarcely heard in the land. During the early part of the
sixteenth century, it is true, the English typographers showed
themselves quite capable of making-up and printing a book
in red and black, though many of the finest volumes of this
kind were produced abroad for the English market, like the
beautiful Sarum Missal printed in Paris by W. Hopyl, in 1504,
for a London bookseller named Birckman. English two-
colour bookwork survived to the end of Henry VIII's reign,
as seen in that monarch's Primer, issued in 1545 by Grafton,
which has the rubrics in red throughout. But in the first
Book of Conunon Prayer of Edward VI (1549), the red and
black lettering was confined to the title and contents pages
and the Calendar, so that the two-colour Church Service book
may be said to have then disappeared from England (except
for the few years of Mary's reign) until the Victorian Era.

Banished from the liturgy, perhaps because its use might have
aroused Romanist associations which were best left to slumber,
printing in red and black found a permanent resting-place
in the Almanac, where it flourished in England imdisturbed
until the middle of the seventeenth century, when the title-
page in red and black came into fashion again for ordinary
books, especially folios. An earlier and rather elaborate

COLOUR PRINTING

letterpress title in red and black is that to Reeves' Christian
DivifUtie, 1631. Books of a higher order than almanacs,
printed in red and black, were not common in England at this
time ; Broughton's CammefUary on Daniel (London, 1597)
has three and a half pages of Hebrew text printed in that
style, but a more rniusual example is Polycarpi et Ignaiio
Epistola, printed at the Oxford University Press in 1644. In
the first part, passages from the Greek and Latin versions are
printed in parallel columns, in order to show some interpola-
tions, and in both frequent sentences in red occur. In the
second part the Epistles are printed in full in both languages,
and in the Greek text the rubricated passages are very numerous,
and sometimes of considerable length, extending here and
there to an entire colunm ; even the list of errata is in red and
black. This is a fine and picturesque piece of rubricated
typography, and was preceded in 1633 by a similar work. Pope
Clement's commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corin-
thians, in which, however, the two-colour work is on a much
more modest scale.

Pictorial printing in colours seems to have been quite im-
known in England until Le Blon's time, as the elementary
armorial devices in the Boke of St. Albans can scarcely be ranked
as pictures. The only attempt at anything of the sort, and a
very faint attempt it was, is of the kind which may be seen
exemplified in the astrological diagram of the human body
which occurs on the back of the title of the Necessari Alman^
acke for 1560, printed at London by Thos. Marsh ; and, on a
more limited scale, in the vignette on the title-page of W.
Musculus' Commonplaces of the Christian Religion, printed in
London by R. Wolfe in 1563. These woodcuts have some of
the details printed twice over, first in red and then in black, the
second impression being a little out of register with the first,
so that the effect is slightly reminiscent of the earlier chiaro-
scuro style. In a London Almanac for 1584, printed by Watkins
& Roberts, the diagram representing the eclipses of the moon
for that year is printed in red and black.

SOME 17th cent. ENGLISH ALMANACS

It is curiotis to find that whereas the two-colour bordered
title-page had practically died out on the Continent at the
commencement of the seventeenth century, printers in England
should be just then beginning to introduce it. Pond's Almanac
for 1611 has a very crude woodcut border in compartments,
evidently of English origin, but printed in black. In Hapton's
Almanac for 1613 it is used again, but some of the details are
repeated in red, in the style of the sixteenth century examples
just mentioned. In Bretnor's Newe Almanacke for 1615 the
same two-colour border occurs, the lettering of the title-page
being also in red and black. In the previous edition of Bretnor
(1614) a different four-piece border was used, probably of
Continental origin, with a globe in the centre of each side,
printed in red and black in the same style, as are also the initials
" E.A." on the bottom piece of the border. These were pro-
bably stock blocks, to which a newly-engraved one for red was
adjusted, after the fashion of the Paris book of 1532 already
alluded to ; but in Bretnor for 1624 a new border appears,
probably specially designed for two-colour work. Each of the
sides is divided into six panels, containing the signs of the
2^odiac, the top having the royal arms, and the bottom the arms
of the Stationers' Company, for whom these almanacs were
printed. The frame-like border of the panels is printed in red
throughout, and the effect is not unpleasing. This is a 12mo
volume, but in AUestree's Almanac for 1634 the same design
appears in a larger size, to suit the octavo page of that publica-
tion, and, like the other, is printed in two colours. Woodhouse's
Almanac for 1628 has a different border to the others, but still
printed in two colours. For 1635, the title borders of all the
almanacs appear to have been produced in this style ; Pechins'
and Pierce's had the globe design already referred to ; Soff ord's
and Jefierey's had it also, but with the royal arms at the top,
and the Stationers Co.'s below. Only a part of each was
outlined in red in these, but in Langley's the whole of the
royal arms was in the two colours. In Clark's and Dove's
almanacs the border was made up of t}^ ornaments, some

COLOUR PRINTING

of which were in red, the rest in black. All these Uttle differ-
ences, occurring at the same time, suggest that much experi-
menting was going on. In Fallow's Almanac for 1637 the
globe design reappears, as well as in Dade's for 1643, in which
case, perhaps inadvertently, the red impression was printed
on top of the black. In books other than Almanacs, this class
of colour printing seems to have been very seldom used.
Fisher's Defence of the Liturgy of the Church of England (London,
1630), has the title within a woodcut border, of which the
comers are printed in red and black. The Communion Book
Catechism Expounded (London, 1636) has the letterpress title
in red and black, surrounded by a " combination " border
printed in both colours. Howell's Survey of the Signorie of
Venice (London, 1651) has a cut of the Lion of St. Mark on
the title-page, printed in red and black. An early novel,
BenHvolio and Urania (London, 1660), has also a two-colour
vignette on the title. Foreign seventeenth century examples
of this character are, if anything, rarer still. An edition of
the theological works of D. H. Zanchus, printed at Geneva
by S. Crispin in 1619, has that typographer's woodcut device
of the Sower on the title-page, printed in black, with portions
cut away from the top, bottom, and sides, which are filled in
with emblematical cuts of cherubs, etc., printed in red. The
Acta Synodi NaHonalis (Dordrecht, 1620) has a shield in red
and black on the title-page. In an almanac for 1682, printed
at Basle by J. E. de Mechel, some of the woodcuts are tinted
by broad masses of red, suggesting the use of the stencil.
Examples of the use of a block for furnishing part of the
lettering of a title occur in the PosHlla DomesHca, hoc est
Simplex (Eichhom, Frankfort, 1652), the word Simplex being
in large xylographic Roman capitals, surrounded on three
sides by an ornamental border, this block being printed in red.
The title-page of the Shrift und Planete Kalender for 1723
(Hamburg) has those words engraved in three lines of German
Gothic letter, with accompanying flourished ornaments, all
printed in red.

CHIDLEY THE CENSOR

A curious specimen of English bookwork, entirely in red, is
furnished by Samuel Chidley's Cry Against a Crying Sinne
(London, 1652), a twenty-four page pamphlet of the usual
small quarto format of that period. Chidley was a person of
humanitarian inclinations, who, " from his mother's home in
Soper Lane," penned long epistles protesting against the
barbarous nature of the laws that then provided the death
penalty for comparatively trivial offences, including that of
stealing goods to the value of thirteen pence, and the cruel
punishment of " pressing to death " in cases where a prisoner
refused to plead. The Court of Common Council, the Army
Council, and the Judges at Newgate were successively peti-
tioned by Chidley without result, and finally he appealed to
the Lord Protector and the Parliament in a four-page leaflet,
also printed in red. Addressing them as " Mortal Gods,"
Chidley, in the following passage, explains why he had his
communication printed in red : " And because you are the
Patrons of England's Statutes, and have power to redress the
Grievances which by your law cannot be redressed without you,
I have presented you with these lines printed in red letters
because, though Tophet is prepared of old for Kings, because of
their crying crimes, yet Parliament's sins are sins red as scarlet,
of a deep and double dye." Seeing that Chidley, in this
address to the Legislature, referred in strong terms to the sins
of the " Lying Lawyers," whom he further apostrophised as
" Lascivious Lubbers," it is not surprising that he had to
protest again, in the Cry just alluded to. At the foot of
the last page is the following : " By Mr. Chidley's appoint-
ment, who is the author of this book, one of them should have
been nailed upon Tibume Gallowes before the execution, with
this motto written on the top: —

' Cursed be that bloody hand
Which takes this downe without command/

as a witness against such cursed proceedings of murdering men
merely for stealing food or rayment, but the party could not
naile it upon Tibume-Gallows-Tree, for the crowde of people,

COLOUR PRINTING

and therefore was forced to naile it to the tree which is upon
the bank by the Gallowes, and there it remained, and was read
by many both before and after execution and it's thought it
will stand there still, till it drop away." James Heath's New
Book of Martyrs (Lond., c. 1665) has, by way of frontispiece, a
list of the *' martyrs," commencing with Charles I, printed
from type in red.

The seventeenth century appears to be the least fruitful of
all periods in the annals of pictorial colour printing. The
enthusiasm of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries had
quite died out, and in its place we have illustration of a very
commonplace order. It is true that this was the age of the
Elzevirs, but those excellent Dutch printers were not con-
cerned with colour work, and but httle with illustrated books.
Nor did they do much in the way of printing in red and black,
apart from a pretty little volume of Justinian's codes, with
conunentary. A different class of work is seen in Andrea
Ghisi's LdberifUo (Venice, E. Deuchino, 1616), in which forty-
two of the folio pages are occupied by 1,260 small woodcuts of
pla3dng-cards, with xylographic inscriptions, all printed in red.

The use of colour printing for the production of the plates
for a scientific work is of the utmost rarity prior to the middle
of the eighteenth century, but what must be an almost solitary
instance of the kind occurs in G. Aselli's De lacHbus sive lacteis
vents, published at Milan by J. B. Bidelli in 1627. This is a
medical treatise in quarto, on the chyle ducts of the himian
body, and has four large folding plates, printed in colours
from wood blocks, illustrating various internal organs. They
are in a flesh-coloured ground tint, on which the veins, etc.,
are shown in a darker red, or, by parts being engraved out,
in white, some, as well as the descriptive lettering, and the
solid ground which extends from the outlines of the picture
to nearly the edges of the leaf, being in black, the block applying
this colour being worked last. The paper is badly stained
with the oil used in the inks.

The production of line engravings from intaglio plates, in

SOME DUTCH EXPERIMENTERS

any colour other than black — ^now one of the least practised
of all colour-pnnting processes — appears to have taken its rise
about this period. A Dutchman, Hercules Seghers ( 1625-1679) ,
a friend of Rembrandt, was one of the first to practise it.
His etchings have often been referred to as early examples of
colour printing, but as far as can be judged from an inspection
of them there is only a single printed colour, though this is
generally some other than black. One of those preserved in the
Print Room at the British Museum, a mountainous landscape
with a rushing stream in the foreground, is printed in blue,
and has in places small patches of a sort of grain, somewhat
distantly resembling that of aquatint, though much more
irregular and scratchy, suggesting Lutma's " Opus Mallei.''
This is also found on some other of Seghers' etchings, nearly
all of which are more or less covered with pale and washy tints,
most Ukely put in by hand, though some of the darker patches
may have been stencilled. Seghers' work, in fact, bears much
the same relation to colour printing as does Blake's, most of
the tints being obviously hand-work.

Another Dutchman, Peter Lastman, of Amsterdam (bom
at Haarlem in 1581, and thus contemporary with Seghers),
appears to have gone in for the same class of work from 1626
onwards, though the writer has not been able to come across
any specimens. When Gautier Dagoty, the French exploiter
of the Le Blon process, was in London about 1750, Mr. Mortimer,
the Secretary of the Royal Society, showed him some colour
prints of Lastman's, studies of birds, fruit, etc., which had
apparently been printed from a single plate at one impression.
Nothing is known as to the present whereabouts of these
pictures. Line engravings in colour are also said to have been
produced by Peter Schenck, another Amsterdamer, about
1700.

Abraham Bosse, a copperplate engraver of some note in his
day, briefly described, in his Traiti des Manures de Graver en
TaiUe douce (Paris, 1645), a method of printing in colours from
copperplates. His idea was apparently to produce those Uttle

COLOUR PRINTING

devotional prints of the saints, etc., commonly termed
" Images/' and which were wont to be coloured by hand. He
first took an impression in the ordinary way, from the copper-
plate on which the design was engraved, on a piece of damped
paper or card, then took another plain plate covered with white
varnish, and laid the printed paper down on it, so as to produce
in the press a '* set-off " reversed impression on the top of the
varnish. This done, the varnish under those parts of the
design it was intended to colour was cut away, and the plate
etched in the ordinary way, the same process being adopted
for each colour required other than black.

Whether Bosse produced any coloured pictures by this
method is doubtful, as none of his prints of saints, etc., cata-
logued by Duplessis are stated to be in colours. The most able
expositor of the possibilities of colour printing from plates
engraved in line was undoubtedly Johannes Teyler, of N3anegen,
Holland, who was a military engineer by profession, and an
artist and engraver by taste and instinct. Very little is known
about him, but as far as colour printing was concerned he was
evidently a man far in advance of the times. Who inspired
him we do not know, but we do know that he produced line
engravings in colour to an extent, and in a variety, that has
probably never been surpassed since his time. His work
in this direction is only known through the medium of a
single volume, a large folio bound in calf gilt, and supposed
to date from about 1670. After Teyler's death it remained
in the possession of his family down to comparatively recent
times, but found its way into an Amsterdam bookseller's sale
catalogue in 1868. It is now preserved in the Print Room at
the British Museum, and contains 185 prints of various sizes,
from a double page down to tiny pictures of caterpillars and
other insects. The great majority of the prints are in line,
though there are two or three mezzotints, and some of the pic-
tures are partly engraved in a sort of stipple. All are printed
in colours, and though many of the larger ones are in five or
six tints, they were produced at a single impression. The

TEYLER AND HIS COLOUR PRINTS

plates were not necessarily all engraved by Teyler himself,
the subjects being so diverse as to suggest that he was in the
habit of pulling, for his own amusement, proofs in multicolour
from every engraved copperplate that came into his possession.
The prints include several fine portraits ; a number of classical
and m3^holQgical subjects, in the usual style of the period ;
many views of Rome and Amsterdam ; prints of birds, insects,
and reptiles ; architectural elevations, etc. Several of them
are too large for the volume, and are thus folded down one
edge, as in the case of the title-leaf, though in a few instances
they have been barbarously cut down through the engraved
surface. The title-page contains a central oval panel sur-
rounded with a frame-like border, the rest of the space being
filled with stalk-and-leaf ornament of rococo character. Within
the oval space is the following MS. title : " Joh. Tejlerjs |
Batavij | Chalcographi ingeniosissimi | Opus | Typo-chroma-
ticum I id est ; | Typi oenei onmi colorum genere | simul
impressi et ab ipso | primum inventi," i.e., " Typo Chroma-
ticmn, by J. Teyler, an ingenious Dutch engraver, being pictures
printed from copper plates in several colours at one impression,
by a method of which he was the first inventor." His claim to
be the inventor is probably a true one, as nothing of the kind is
known to have been produced before his time, and, it may be
added, next to nothing since. This title is a fine piece of work,
printed in black, yeUow, olive-green and red. Next come the
portraits, nine in number, of unknown personages, mostly
females of royal or noble birth. One is after Sir Godfrey
Kneller and two after Van Dyck. Among them is a bust
portrait of a lady, engraved in mezzotint, with a wreath of
flowers beneath ; this has been cut down to the outlines of
the figure, and mounted, so that we cannot tell what the com-
plete original was like. The majority of the prints in the
volume are pasted on its blank leaves, though some of the finest
have been printed on the leaves themselves. A good many
more have been removed from the book at some time or other.
The most remarkable feature about Teyler's colour work is

COLOUR PRINTING

the way in which the different tints range flush with each other.
In processes where a separate block or plate is used for each
colour, this is of course expected, but when a single plate is
inked in six or more colours, all bordering on each other, it is
almost impossible to rigidly preserve the line of demarcation
between them, yet Teyler seemingly accomplished this with
ease, and with such skill that only a careful examination of the
prints can convince that all the colours were printed at a single
impression. The sombre tints of the chiaroscurists were not
used by Teyler, who, instead, revelled in briUiant reds, blues,
greens and yellows, natural colouring being adopted as far as
possible. The work is, perhaps, seen at its best in the lightly
engraved classical subjects, as in the heavily shaded back-
ground of some of the portraits the colour has been transferred
in almost a solid mass, thus partly obscuring the Unes. Two
or three designs for fans are especially good, but in some cases
the colouring is more curious than beautiful. This is generally
so with the architectural elevations, where blue roofs and steps,
red doors and vanes, and yellow fronts make up some rather
crude colour contrasts. No matter how minute were the
details on some of the plates, Teyler managed to ink them in
colour, probably with the aid of a brush. In some views of
the interior and exterior of St. Peter's, at Rome, there is a
number of figures only half an inch high, but they are all
printed in different colours. Many of the pictures in the
volume have been worked on in water colours by some later
and rather unskilful hand, but where Teyler's colour printing
is intact it is as brilliant as when first executed. One of the
portraits is evidently in the '* first state," as blank spaces
appear for the name and arms of the person represented.
Another, a fine fuU-length portrait of a lady, with a coronet
on a cushion at her side, is beautifully printed in half a dozen
colours, though one or two of these are rather less bright than
Teyler's are wont to be. Whatever he may have been as an
artist and engraver, there is little or no sign of the amateur
in his colour-printing work ; nor is there any suggestion in the

« ttrotbgn. I.ea}i.

COPPERPLATE COLOUR WORK

volume that he intended to publish a book of such prints, it
being quite evident that they are special proofs, from plates
inked and printed by Teyler himself as a sort of hobby. Why
a man who had, as it were, thus invented a new form of art,
which has remained almost unpractised since his day, should
have been content to hide his light under the bushel of a
little Dutch town, will probably never be known. His unique
book has, however, rescued his memory from oblivion, and
were some of the art print publishers of the present day to see
it, it would probably reveal to them hitherto undreamt of
possibilities in the way of colour prints. The process, it is
true, is both slow and expensive, but seeing that the five-guinea
colour etchings so popular just now, and mostly produced by
a somewhat similar method, find purchasers easily enough,
there should be an equally good field for the exploitation of
multicolour line engravings.

One of the most prolific Italian etchers and engravers of this
period, G. M. Mitelli, of Bologna (1634-1718), printed a few of
his line engravings in red. One of these represents St. Philip
Neri, after A. Algardi, and another a Roman galley, with
soldiers. A rather novel style of colour printing is seen in the
plates for the anonymous Peristromata Turcica, i.e., Turkish
Carpets, published at Paris in 1641. This is " an emblematical
dissertation on the state of Europe " in its relation to Turkey
and Turkish intrigues, and contains half a dozen copperplate
line engravings — one of which serves as the title-page —
representing carpets, which are printed in one colour, a rect-
angular cut-out space in the centre being filled with an emblem-
atic engraving in another, so that where the carpet is black,
as it is in four cases, the centre is red, and vice versa. A similar
method was used on an eighteenth century Italian title-page
in the writer's possession, of Delia Prudenza, dedicated to
P. V. Pisani, Procurator of St. Mark's, Venice. Most of the
space is occupied by a fine rococo design printed in blue, within
the central panel of which is the lettering, printed in red from
a second plate.

COLOUR PRINTING

Before quitting this period, brief reference may be made
to another method of producing colour effects on paper, the
invention of which is generally ascribed to the seventeenth
century, i.e., " marbling." Whether first practised in France or
Holland cannot be exactly determined, though the latter coun-
try is usually credited with the honour. The earliest English
patent connected with it is that of Redrich & Jones (1724)
but if a passage in one of Bagford's MSS. is to be believed, the
introduction of the process into this country dates from some
thirty years before. He attributes it to one Dr. Garenci^res,
who was perhaps a Huguenot refugee, and had learned some-
thing of the process in France. Finding that the foreign
marbled paper was dear, he started to make it in London, at
Clerkenwell Green ; but his productions were duller and not
* so glossy as the Dutch, so he turned his attention to the manu-
facture of the necessary colours, in which he was so successful
that on his death he left a prosperous business to his daughter.
One of the Bagford scrap books preserved at the British
Museum contains a number of specimens of the marbled paper
of two centuries ago, but they are mostly of quite ordinary
character. It will be remembered by readers of Tristram
Shandy that a piece of marbled paper serves as an illustration
in that work.

CHAPTER III

COLOUR PRINTING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Section I

LE blow's three-colour PROCESS. THE LATER WORKERS
IN CHIAROSCURO.

ITH the coming of the eighteenth centuiy ,
the art of colour printing at last threw
off the shackles which had for so long
confined it within comparatively narrow
limits, and emerged into the full light
of day. Most of the processes operated
during this period are still continued,
though on modified lines, at the present
time. Genuine colour prints, as distinguished from the rather
cold and gloomy ones in chiaroscuro, now b^an to be intro-
duced, and although chiaroscuro work was again revived, it
took on to some extent a more brilliant dress. The intro-
duction of new methods of engraving was laigely responsible
for this improved state of things. Hitherto, with the almost
solitary exception of Teyler's work, which, perhaps, never
came before the public eye in any quantity, the woodcut
had formed the sole medium of production, engravings in
intagho being only used in a few isolated cases.

Before proceeding to deal with pictorial work, something
may be said concerning letterpress printing in colours, of
which a particular interesting example belongs to the early
part of the period under notice. Appropriately enough, it
is the work of a printer at Mentz, the cradle of typography,
and occurs in an edition of the works of Raymond LuUy, the
thirteenth coitury alchemist, which was issued in e^ht
ponderous folio volumes between 1721 and 1742. There is
colour work in most of them, but only two are specially

49
4—12238)

COLOUR PRINTING

remarkable in this respect. Each contains about a score of
separate plates of tables and diagrams, mostly printed in
four colours, blue, green, red and yellow. The diagrams
are very interesting. In a circular space are four square or
triangular tablets, with a conunon centre, but arranged at
different angles; each is printed in a different colour, not
solid, but from engraved lines. This inner circle is surrounded
with other concentric ones, divided up by rule work into a
nimiber of spaces containing lettering, also printed in several
colours. The table work is still more remarkable ; that
headed " Figura Objectum " occupies a full page, divided
by rules into a large number of rectangular spaces, containing
capital letters printed in red, blue, yellow and purple. Some
characters, such as "V," are themselves in two colours,
each limb being in a different tint. The " Figura Secunda "
following is so large as to require two sheets for its presentation,
which, in each case, takes the form of a large triangle divided
as before into spaces about |- inch square, in each of which are
words printed in two colours. In this manner, on various
pages, are the warring elements textually depicted, the virtues
and vices contrasted, etc., in the manner set out in Lully's
writings. The printer of the earlier volumes, who was certainly
to be congratulated on his skill and patience, was J. G.
Haffner, who probably died during the twenty years the work
was in progress, so that the task was finished by his son (?)
J. H. Haffner, who, however, printed his tables in the common
red and black only. As an example of semi-pictorial letterpress
work in colours, this production probably stands unrivalled,
even the rule work and the descriptive lettering being in colours ;
the inks used have generally retained their brilliance unimpaired
and good register is maintained throughout. There is a com-
plete set of the volumes in the British Museum, but an odd
one, which, however, contains the best exposition of Haffner's
colour work, can be inspected at the Technical Library of the
St. Bride Foundation.
From the colour printer's point of view, the most important

LE BLON'S TRICHROMATIC PROCESS

achievement of the early part of the eighteenth century was
the invention, by James Christopher Le Blon, of his three-
colour process. Probably few, out of all the hundreds of
persons who operate an almost identical method in this
twentieth century, are aware that the principle was not only
understood, but practised nearly two hundred years ago, for
the purpose of producing coloured pictures, the only important
differences being that Le Blon had not the use of a camera,
and that his plates were engraved by hand. As so many
important inventions connected with printing — ^not to speak
of that art itself — ^have had their birthplace in Germany, it was
quite fitting that Le Blon, though of French extraction, had his
there also, viz., at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in May, 1667. For
many years after attaining early manhood, he led that wander-
ing life which is the lot of most German art students. His
training was acquired mainly at Zurich, but subsequently he
went to Rome. Seeing that he was shaping rather badly there,
a Dutch friend took Le Blon back with him on his return to
Holland, and he then settled down for some time as a portrait
and miniature-painter at Amsterdam, in the conunencement
of the eighteenth century.

Thirty years before this time, the great English philosopher,
Isaac Newton, was engaged in his celebrated investigations
into the laws of nature. Among other theories he propounded,
in connection with his researches into the nature of light and
colour, was one to the effect that the variegated hues of the
spectrum of white light are merely combinations of certain
primary colours, which are simple and uncompounded, i.e.,
are not the product of any other combinations. Newton,
therefore, held that all other tints and shades in natiure are
the residt of combinations of these in varying proportions.
He was of opinion that there were about seven of these primary
colours, whilst another scientist of that day, Hooke, held that
there were but two, scarlet and blue. The Newtonian colour
theory was subsequently modified to the present one, that there
are three colour sensations, which can be represented by red,

COLOUR PRINTING

blue and yellow. In this form the idea seems to have attracted
the attention of Le Blon, who was perhaps the first to apply
the principles supposed to govern colour in nature to the
representation of colour by the processes of art. His treatise
on the Harmony of G>louring was probably not written until
a later period, but its teaching was no doubt practised by him
from the first.

The medium he selected, for the purpose of demonstrating
the correctness of the theory, was the engraving method known
as Mezzotinting, which had been invented about half a
century before, probably at Amsterdam, by Lieutenant-Colonel
Louis van Siegen, an officer in the service of William VI,
Landgrave of Hesse. Mezzotint engraving is effected by
puncturing or breaking up the entire surface of the copper-
plate by means of a rocker, an instrument like a broad chisel,
with its edge groimd to the segment of a circle, like the rocker
of a cradle, one side being engraved in parallel lines, so as to
form minute teeth on the curved edge. This produces a
uniform burr, which is afterwards reduced to various degrees
of intensity by scraping and burnishing, thereby regulating
the amount of ink capable of being retained by the plate, the
richest black being printed from the plate in its original state
after the rocking, and before being worked on. The process
was extensively used in the production of portraits, and
afforded fuller and richer effects of gradation from light to
shadow than either etching or ordinary copperplate engraving.
Mezzotint, in fact, having a sort of " grain " as a basis,
renders the middle or half-tones of a picture better than any
line engraving process can do ; thus Le Blon, in selecting it as
the most suitable one for use in connection with his
invention, started to work not merely a " three-colour," but a
three-colour half-tone process.

In the three-colour process of to-day the coloiurs are selected
and arranged automaticaUy by the camera, through the medium
of the light filters, but Le Blon, having no camera to assist
him in colour selection, had to proceed in the same way as

LE BLON STARTS "THE PICTURE OFFICE"

the expert chromo-lithographer does, i,e,, to mentally analyse
the colour scheme of any picture he proposed to copy — ^he
used the process mostly for this purpose — ^and to prepare
his colour plates accordingly, just as the lithographer prepares
his stones. There was one mezzotinted plate for each colour,
and it is to be gathered from some of his pictures that he
printed the blue first, then the yellow, and lastly the red.
Having prepared some specimen prints about 1704, Le Blon
showed them to many eminent persons, including Prince
Eugene of Savoy, and having obtained their commendation,
tried to form a sort of S3mdicate to exploit the process.
Failing to do this in Holland, he, about 1705, went to Paris,
but as mezzotinting never took root in France, he was equally
unsuccessful there.

He then decided to follow the advice that had been given
him by Lord Halifax, to go over to England, and arrived in
London about 1719. Here he found a public to some extent
S}anpathetic. The art of engraving in mezzotint had been
described in detail, with illustrations, in the Scidptura of John
Evelyn, of Diary fame, as early as 1662, and so was fully under-
stood in England, and appreciated also. Le Blon foimd a firm
supporter in Colonel Sir John Guise, an art amateur, who pro-
mised to put money in the proposed S3mdicate himself, and no
doubt induced many of his friends to do the same. George I
was graciously pleased to take an interest in his countryman's
enterprise, and accorded him permission to copy some of the
pictures at Kensington Palace, so that all things looked
promising for a start. A prospectus was issued, a Company
formed in 1720 with the title of " The Picture Office," the
necessary capital raised, and Le Blon appointed technical
director. Colonel Guise being the chairman of the concern,
which had its headquarters at the ** Dutch House " in the
Savoy, where a large staff was employed. All went swimmingly
for a time ; 25 pictures were copied, and several thousands
of three-colour prints produced, to seU at prices from 10s. to
21s. each, according to size.

COLOUR PRINTING

We get some interesting details about " The Picture Office "
from family papers preserved among the Earl of Egmont's
MSS. On August 30th, 1721, James, Lord Percival (after-
wards first Earl of Egmont), wrote to his brother from London
on the subject, advising him that he was sending seven speci-
mens of Le Blon's work, which cost £3 14s., including 10s.
for the '' Magdalene," after Caracci, and 12s. for the " Susanna
and the Elders." Said his Lordship : " Our modem painters
can't come near it [the process] with their coloiurs, and if
they attempt a copy make us pay as many guineas as now we
give shilhngs." On March 22nd Lord Percival mentioned
that the company had suffered a good deal from mismanage-
ment, but was nevertheless improving. A year later,
however, there was a different tale to tell, which is conveyed
by a letter from one D. Dering to Lord Percival, giving par-
ticulars of a meeting of the company on March 7th, when forty
or fifty of the members were present, with Guise in the chair.
A long accoimt of the company's proceedings was read, and
contained many reflections on Le Blon, each of which he
characterised as a lie, "/^ declare que cela est faux." 490 shares
of £15 each had been taken up, so that with what was due
to the original promoters the liabilities amounted to about
j£9,000, of which £7,000 had been spent, £5,000 of it imder
Le Blon's direction, in the production of 4,000 prints, which,
if sold at the prices fixed, would entail a loss of £2,000. One
Guine was also producing prints for the company, but on a
much more economical basis, as for £2,000 he had turned
out 5,000 in ten months, and these, when sold, would bring in
£1,600 profit.

Some change had probably been made in the process, as the
report set out that with the twenty-five sets of plates in stock,
by " the method they now use " there might be 14,000 more
prints produced, which, with Guine's 5,000, would, if sold,
bring in £12,000. Le Blon had obtained an English patent
for his process in February, 1719-20, but no details of the
invention are in existence, the so-called specification being

LE BLON'S "COLORITTO"

merdy a transcript of the entry on the Patent Roll. He
seems, however, to have demonstrated his methods in pubhc
on more than one occasion. About 1722 (the British Museum
catalogue dates it 1755 !) he published a work entitled ColoriUo,
or the Harmony of Colouring in Painting, a thin quarto volume,
of which only a few copies were issued at a guinea each,
containing an explanation of the colour scheme he had
formulated on the basis of the Newtonian theory. It is
illustrated by nine full-page plates, mezzotinted by Le Blon,
but only two or three of these are in colour, his object in
publishing the book being to explain, not the three-colour
process, but the principles on which it depended. The work
is not, however, very intelligible ; indeed, Dr. Singer {Studio,
May, 1903) characterises it as silly. It was dedicated to Sir
Robert Walpole, the chief political personage of the day at
the English G)urt. His son Horace, the writer of the well-
known Letters, states in his Anecdotes of Painting that he had
seen Le Blon. If they met while the latter was in England,
Horace was but a boy at the time, having been bom in 1717 ;
it is possible, however, that he may have seen Le Blon on the
occasion of his visit to Paris in 1739. Anyhow, he refers to
the engraver-printer as a " universal projector . . . either
a dupe or a cheat, I think the former . . . as he was much of
an enthusiast, perhaps, like most enthusiasts, he was both
one and t'other."

Whether " a cheat " or not, Le Blon was certainly the
cause of a good deal of money being lost by the members of
his companies. In after years, he claimed to have lost ;^2,000
himself, but this may have been a mere empty boast, as
George Vertue calls Le Blon " a man of forward spirit, toler-
able assurance, and with a good tongue of his own." The
members of the original syndicate naturally lauded his process
to the skies, but the artists, as naturally, tried to consign
it to a quite different locality. It is said that some of Le
Blon-s prints from pictures by Rubens and Van Dyck were
sold for originals, perhaps by unscrupulous picture dealers.

COLOUR PRINTING

He prepared the designs for the engravers, and corrected
their work, and had many printers, colourers and frame
makers under his care as well. As for Colonel Guise, Vertue
describes him as swearing at and bullying everybody, with
the idea that he was thereby advancing the company's
interests.

Le Blon had two strings to his bow, having also invented
a process of reproducing pictures in tapestry. " The Picture
Office " operated this, and at the meeting just referred to it
was stated that although ;^50 had been expended in erecting
buildings in the neighbourhood of the Mulberry Gardens at
Chelsea, and putting down looms, the only result was the
weaving of a picture of a child's head and a piece of silk, which
might be worth £30. Under these circumstances, it is not
surprising that a Conunittee was appointed to look into the
affairs of the company, and report to the shareholders. What
happened afterwards seems to have been that Le Blon was
deprived of his post of Director, an artist named Prudhomme
being appointed to succeed him. This must have been not
later than October, 1722, but it seems Ukely that the company
was in existence till a much later period, as Le Blon was wont
to boast that, for four or five years after, they were unable
to carry on the business properly without him. After his
connection with " The Picture Office " had thus come to an
end, he turned his attention to portrait-painting for a time.
His colour prints, according to Walpole, were disposed of by
a sort of lottery, but those who gained them as prizes found
that very little value was set upon them by the public. Wal-
pole, however, admits that they were " very tolerable copies "
of the originals. Dr. Singer thinks that about fifty plates
in all were engraved by the process, and that the average
edition was about 200 copies. If this be so, then out of these
10,000 prints not more than about a hundred are known to
have survived, though many more may exist, masquerading
as oil paintings by the aid of a thick coating of varnish, as
is the case with some of the few specimens preserved at the

LE BLON'S FAILURES IN ENGLAND

British Museum. Although the process lingered on in England
for a number of years, with varymg success, no book is known
to have been illustrated by it. Mezzotinted plates were really
too delicate for continuous work, and it was stated that
after a number of copies had been taken off, the colour
impressions became very faint. In his ColoriUo, Le Blon
mentions that he was engaged in preparing some plates for
use in a work being got ready for the press by Dr. Andre,
anatomical surgeon to George I, but the Doctor was mixed
up with an alleged miraculous birth scandal at Guildford in
1727, and when the bubble burst his reputation was exploded
with it, so that the book was never published.

This disappointment probably led Le Blon to try his hand
at forming another company, for the purpose of exploiting
his tapestry process. He accordingly petitioned the Crown
for a patent in 1727, the warrant for which still exists in the
British Museum (Add. MSS. 31626, fo. 175). This document
authorised him to form his proposed company, so a fresh start
was made ; but the new concern, which intended to reproduce
Raphael's Cartoons (at Hampton Court) in tapestry, met with
the same fate as the old one. Nothing daimted, Le Blon,
in 1731, tried to save his colour-printing process from extinction
by inviting the Royal Society to test and report upon it.
Mr. Mortimer, the Secretary, did so, and his remarks will be
foimd in the Society's Philosopkicdl Transactions for Jime
in that year, but we learn hardly an}rthing new from them,
the matter consisting mostiy of a description of the tapestry
process. It was estimated that the engraved plates would
stand 3,000 impressions being taken from them, which sounds
absurd. This report probably did Le Blon no good, as it
was now too late to revive the old schemes ; the people who
had supported him at the start were disgusted by the loss
of their money, and in the end Le Blon, who was heavily in
debt, saw that the game was up so far as this coimtry was
concerned, and so decided in 1732 to betake himself and his
process across the water.

COLOUR PRINTING

He tried his fortune once more at the Hague, but with the
same want of success as before, and by 1735 had moved on
to Paris, where he was destined to spend his few remaining
years in comparative peace. He seems to have made no
more attempts to form companies, but took the precaution
of patenting his process in France. In November, 1737, the
Council of State agreed to give him a twenty years' monopoly
of his three-colour method, and in the following April he was
informed that his patent could be considered secure as soon
as he had demonstrated his process to four Commissioners,
one of whom was M. Gautier de Montdorge. Le Blon duly
complied with the condition, and the Conunissioners thought
the process both tedious and expensive. A little circle of
pupils gathered round the inventor, but only a few prints
seem to have been produced in Paris by Le Blon himself,
who died in poor circumstances in a hospital there in May,
1741. To some extent, his process may be said to have
died with him, although it survived in various modified forms
for another forty years. His own work, at any rate in the
earlier years, seems to have been strictly on the three-colour
basis, but there has been a good deal of controversy as to
whether or not he used a fourth or black plate as a key for
the colours. Mr. Mortimer's report stated that in cases where
economy, beauty or speed was required, more than three
plates were sometimes used. That Le Blon did so in Paris
is almost certain, and he is said to have commimicated details
of this modification of the process to the Conunissioners before
whom he had previously demonstrated his methods. The
genuine Le Blon three-colour prints bear, in the light or flesh
tints, a striking resemblance to those of to-day, but in the dark
shadows a little line engraving was occasionally resorted to,
as well as in the hair in large pictures, such as the " Madonna,"
after Barocci ; this, like many others of his prints, was pro-
duced the full size of the original, i.e,, about 24 x 20 inches.
The printed colours were occasionally supplemented by a
little hand work in the eyes or Ups, or as in the fine print

THE LE BLON PROCESS IN PARIS

of " Susanna and the Elders," where the water falling from
the fountain is represented by broken lines of Chinese white.
Other fine three-colour prints in almost pure mezzotint are
those of the " Virgin and Child," after Caracci, and the
portraits of Louis XV and Spenser the poet.

Le Blon being dead, his pupils soon began to squabble among
themselves as to which of them was best entitled to wear
the]^mantle of the deceased colour printer. The honour ulti-
mately fell to, or was seized upon by, Jacques Gautier Dagoty,
who was a native of Marseilles. Almost directly after Le
Blon's death he petitioned the Council of State for a re-grant
to himself of the patent for Le Blon's process, of which he
said he had a better knowledge than anyone else. He obtained
a thirty years' "Privilege" in September, 1741, and seems
to have set to work at once imder its protection. At first
there is but little difference between his prints and Le Blon's,
save for the introduction of the fourth plate, which was probably
made a feature of the process as early as 1742, as the art
is said, in one of the issues of the Mercure de France for that
year, to have been " perfected." A fairly representative
print of this period is the " Apollo," which in the imprint
is said to have been " compost et gravi en couleur par Jacques
Gautier, seul privilegie du Roi, 1743." There is a decided brown
tinge about many of Dagoty's prints, and the point marks
in the comers of the plates are often visible. In 1745, 1747
and 1748, three anatomical works were published by him,
containing in all thirty-six plates printed by his process. A
copy of the last was presented by the author to Louis XV,
who, in September, 1749, gave him 600 livres, which was
afterwards continued as an annual pension. In the same
year Dagoty issued a pamphlet explanatory of his use of the
fourth or black plate. His claim to be the improver and
perfector of the Le Blon process formed the subject of some
acrimonious correspondence in the Mercure de France in 1748-9,
his opponent being an engraver named A. Robert, who had
also been a pupil of Le Blon, and had just directed the

COLOUR PRINTING

attention of the King to a three-colour print engraved by himself,
much to Dagoty's disgust. The latter had previously worked
the process in partnership with Messrs. Viguier & Villars,
Robert being vnth them in the capacity of employ6, but the
partners quarrelled, and in May, 1747, the partnership was
dissolved by judicial decree.

Robert remained with Viguier & Villars, who still worked
the Le Blon process by agreement with Dagoty, who started on
his own accoimt elsewhere in Paris. In 1750 Dagoty visited
London in connection with the publication there of a Latin
translation — De opHce errores Isaaci Newtonis — of a work
he had issued in Paris the year before, dealing with some
alleged defects in Newton's theory of light and colour, for
which he substituted one of his own ; any person who doubted
the correctness of his statements could have them proved
to him, with the aid of a prism that Dagoty had invented, on
application to the bookseller (Cogan, of the Middle Temple),
who got out the London edition of his treatise, which had been
presented to the French Academy in 1749. Soon after, Dagoty
conmienced the publication of a sort of magazine, entitled
Observations sur I'Histoire Naturelle, sur la Physique et sur la
Peinture, of which eighteen parts, forming six quarto volumes,
appeared in 1752-5. Fifty-three out of the sixty-three plates
are printed in colours by Dagoty's process, but with two
exceptions they show poor work, compared with Le Blon's,
although the nature of the subjects, anatomical, botanical, etc.,
did not call for high art. The exceptions are a plate on the
optics of painting in Volume I, in which the spectrum is
printed in colours, as well as some other designs exhibiting gra-
dations of the three primary colours, and a plate of two fishes in
Volume II, which, although having some line work on it, is
very good. In November, 1755, Dagoty informed the editor
of the Mercute de France that he was the inventor of the art
of printing pictures in colours with four plates, which he
claimed to have found out at Marseilles before he knew Le Blon.
Subsequently he went to Paris, and there met Father Castel,

MONTDORGE F. DAGOTY AND OTHERS

a Jesuit priest who had written a treatise on colour, and was
persuaded by him to persevere with the process, but the
existence of Le Blon's patent prevented him from following
the advice at that time. As a matter of fact, both he and
Le Blon seem to have been indebted to Castel for some useful
hints.

Whilst Dagoty was thus boasting of his achievements as
a colour printer, an unexpected opponent appeared in M.
Gautier de Montdorge, one of the Commissioners before whom
Le Blon had demonstrated his process in 1738. He published
at Paris in 1756 a work which is usually referred to as the
second edition of Cohritto, although the actual title was
L'Art d'lmprimer Us Tableaux. After the publisher's address
to the reader comes a reprint of Cohritto in both the languages
of the original, followed by some further details of the process,
winding up vnth the statement (signed by Montdorge and
another Commissioner) that Viguier was then working it on
the lines laid down by Le Blon himself. Viguier had a share
in the publication of the book, which was heralded by a revival
of the epistolary controversy between Dagoty and Robert
in the Mercure de France. From this it appears that Dagoty
used five, six, or even seven colour plates on occasion, a method
which Robert considered added to the expense without any
corresponding benefit. Dagoty seems to have published a reply
to M ontdorge's assertions, but the writer has not seen it.

Out of all these claims and counter claims, and charges
and counter charges, we manage to get a fairly clear idea of
the nature of Le Blon's process. The different gradations
of tint had, of course — ^in the absence of the ruled screens of
our days, — ^to be dependent upon the manner in which the
various plates were worked by the engraver, and the degree
of graining given to them. If the plate were roughly grained,
and the colour consequently sank into it deeply, a dark shade
would be produced, whereas if it were only lightly scraped
and the colour but slightly imbibed in consequence, a light
impression would be the result. In the blue plate, for

COLOUR PRINTING

example, those parts that were to appear perfectly blue had to
be left quite rough, but where the blue had to blend with the
colour of another plate the surface had to be scraped more
or less smooth, and where no blue at aU was to appear it had
to be polished to a degree of perfect smoothness, and so on
with the other plates. The colours used for printing had to
be transparent enough to show through one another, in order
that the proper blending of tints might be obtained. They
were groimd with nut or poppy oil, and one-tenth of drjang
oil was added. Prussian blue, yellow ochre and red lake,
the latter mixed with two parts of carmine, were usually
employed. The best effect was produced when all three plates
were used in immediate succession, i,e,, when the prints
were completed one by one, instead of all of them being
printed first in blue, then in yellow, and so on, as the colours
blended more readily in a damp state.

From 1756, Dagoty seems to have remained undisturbed
by his rivals. About ten years later he commenced the plates
for a botanical work of his own, for which he obtained a six
years' Privilege in March, 1767. It was entitled CoUecHon
des Plantes Usuelles, Curieuses et Etrangeres, and the plates
are printed in colours by Dagoty's process. They are unusual
in that the bluish background which had hitherto characterised
his prints was ui this book replaced by a fine irregular stipple,
printed ui black. The colour work is generally very poorly
executed, and in parts supplemented by hand ; red, green
and blue are the usual colours, though occasional small patches
of the first, and perhaps of the others also, have been added
by a brush. Dagoty's practice of engraving his plates himself
brought him into collision about this time with the Company
of Copperplate Printers at Paris, which considered that its
members ought to do all such work. His sons helped him
in the preparation of his plates and books, and also brought
out some publications on their own account. Armand E.
Gautier Dagoty, the second son, was, if an)rthing, a more
efficient demonstrator of the Le Blon process than his father,

SOME DAGOTY FAMILY BOOKS

the plates he did for Jadelet's Anaiomie (Nancy, 1773)
bemg much better examples of colour printing than those
in any of the other worte that have been mentioned. The
volume is an imperial folio, and the first two plates, nude
male and female figures, are really artistic conceptions, ex-
hibiting the spirit of Le Blon's best work, though in the eyes
and lips there is a little red put on by hand. The thirteen
other plates, anatomical diagrams, are also good, and in all
cases the dark olive-green backgroimd characteristic of some
of Le Blon's pictures is substituted for the plain blue or stippled
ones seen in prints by the elder Dagoty. The difference
between the work of these two colour engravers is well illus-
trated by the very mediocre prints in the Plantes Purgatives
d" usage (Paris, 1773), got out by Dagoty p^te. This was
intended to be an important publication, but only Part I,
with eight plates, appeared ; the prints have the usual blue
background, and are of a very decadent order, the smudgy
mezzotinted colour being eked out by some line engraving
and hand-colouring.

Dagoty's fifth son, Gautier Fabien, also worked the family
colour printing process, and seems to have banished the last
vestige of art from it. In 1781 he got out at Paris the first
(and only) part of a Histoire Naturelle, which contains fifty-nine
plates engraved and printed in colours. The writer has not
been able to see a copy, but if the plates are an}rthing like
those the same engraver did for a work of Desfontaine's on
Crystalographie (Paris, 1790), they are not worth troubling
about. In these, the background and the detail are mostly
in line, with a little mezzotinting ; black and brown are the
only printed colours, the others being added by hand.
Considered as colour prints, they are wretched productions.

Dagoty pire died at Paris in 1785, two years after one of
his sons, Edward Gautier Dagoty (bom 1745), had closed
his short life at Florence. The British Museum collection
of Le Blon process prints includes a portrait of this son by
Carlo Lasinio, in which he is styled the inventor of engraving

COLOUR PRINTING

in colours. There are also some separate colour prints by
him, including one of " Leda and the Swan/' a rather coarse-
grain mezzotint, in which is seen the brownish tinge that
appears in so many of the Dagoty family's prints. In one of
his pictures — " A Sleeping Female," after Titian, dated 1780 —
the colouring of the drapery somewhat resembles that seen in
chiaroscuro engravings. Of another print there is an impres-
sion in sepia as well as one in colours. In 1780 he issued a
series of twelve plates after pictures in the collections of the
Duke of Orleans and others.

Lasinio had the details of the colour printing process com-
municated to him by Edward Gautier Dagoty, and after the
latter's death he practised it on his own account. There is a
colour print by him of St. Mark, dated 1783, which rather looks
as though it had been printed from a single plate, inked in
colours in the then ordinary way. Lasinio has, however, left at
least one remarkable monument of his perseverance, if not of
his genius, in the shape of a collection of portraits of painters
{RitraiH de' Pittari), engraved from the original pictures in
the Royal Gallery at Florence. It is doubtful whether it
was ever published in book form, though the set of upwards
of 350 portraits is preserved at the British Museum bound in
three quarto volumes, with MS. title and index, the former
being dated Venice, 1789. There is a twelve-page printed
list of the portraits bound in at the end of the last volume,
from which it would appear that the prints were sold separately
by the printer, Pietro Labrelis, at Florence. This particular
set was once the property of Francisco Rizzo Paterol, an
Itahan nobleman, whose book-plates are in the volumes, and
from his library they passed into the hands of a Venetian
bookseller. The prints are all mezzotints, and (with the
exception of one in sepia) are printed in colours, usually red,
yellow and blue, as well as black, the latter furnishing most
of the detail. Each print measures about 6x5 inches,
and, though the engraving is rather coarsely done, the amount
of labour bestowed upon the task must have been enormous,

EUiluceil fKsimil
by Cirlo Luinlo after E. G. Ds

LASINIO'S THREE-COLOUR MEZZOTINTS

seeing that considerably over a thousand colour plates were
necessary. The colours are fairly bright, though the inks
are rather muddy ; most of the prints have a little extra
colour added by hand. Little or no care seems to have been
bestowed upon their finish, as the colour plates vary con-
siderably in size, in many cases to the extent of nearly half
an inch, a circmnstance which gives a rather unsightly look
to the margins. The names of the persons represented are
roughly scribbled on tablets at the foot of the prints, which
are arranged according to schools, Florentine, Venetian, etc. ;
or nations — ^French, English, etc. These pictures demonstrate
clearly enough that Lasinio was not a great mezzotinter,
as few of them rise above mediocrity. They are practically
all half-lengths, the only full length seated figure being,
curiously enough, a Scotchman, Joseph Macpherson. As a
collection of unusual examples of colour printing, this is of
some importance, and as a series of portraits it is very interest-
ing, as so many men — and women — famous in the annals of
art have their counterfeit presentments in these volumes,
including Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Peter Lely, and other noted
British artists. In Volmne III occurs a portrait of Edward
Gautier Dagoty, whom Lasinio again describes as the " inventor
of engraving in colours."

A rather poor colour print exists of " The Holy Family
in Repose," after Correggio, engraved by Louis Dagoty,
probably another of the sons. The eldest son, Gautier Dagoty,
was associated with his father in 1772 in the publication, at
Paris, of a Galerie UniverseUe of celebrated living personages
of all countries, only the first part of which, containing eight
portraits, ever appeared. Amongst the portraits were those
of Frederick II of Prussia, Voltaire, and the Due de la Valliere,
but they were rather a shoddy lot, with the printed colours
supplemented by hand, so it is not at all surprising that the
French public preferred ordinary line engravings to such poorly
coloured stuff.

Apart from the Dagoty family and Lasinio, the only persons

(2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

who are said to have produced engravings in colour in the
Le Blon manner were Jan L' Admiral, a Dutchman, and J.
Robert. There is a small frontispiece by the former to the
DissertaUo de Arteries of B. S. Albini (Leyden, 1736), but in
the copy the writer has seen, the printed colour is helped out
by hand work. As to Robert, Tarin's Adversaria Anatomica
(Paris, 1750) contains a number of line engravings by him,
several of which are printed in red and black, but there
is not the slightest trace of the Le Blon process in any of
them.

In order not to disturb the thread of that portion of the
narrative, the fortunes of the first three-colour process have
been followed down to its final extinction, some forty years
after its inventor's death. During that period many other
events of interest or importance occurred in connection with
the development of colour printing. So much having already
been said with regard to the use of the mezzotinting process
in the production of colour prints, this branch of the subject
may be followed a little further.

A German botanical work commenced in Le Blon's later
years, J. G. Weinmann's PhytatUhoza Iconographia, contains
a large number of plates partly printed in colour at a single
impression, a method which was, perhaps, based on some
experience or knowledge of what Le Blon had been doing,
and may in its turn have furnished the elder Dagoty with the
keynote for his own experiments in the same direction at a
later period. The work in question was issued in eight folio
volumes, at Ratisbon, between 1737 and 1745, and is illus-
trated by 1,025 copper plates of flowers and plants, a majority
of which are engraved in line, though there are very many in
mezzotint, this method being more particularly used in cases
where a large engraved surface occurs, in representing broad-
leaved plants, for instance. Some are depicted in pots, on the
design and decoration of which the engraver spent a little
more time than usual. There is generally one printed colour
on a plate, in addition to that of the outlines, and sometimes

KIRKALL, THE FIRST ENGLISH CHIAROSCURIST

two, but the presswork is largely supplemented by hand-
colouring, although it often extends to the line-engraved portion
as well as to that which is mezzotinted. The engravers of
the plates were B. Senter, J. E. Ridinger, and J. J. Haid, of
Augsburg, and according to a statement on the title-page
(Nitidissime aeri incisae et sitntd diu desiderata ac recens
invetUa arte vivis coloribus et iconibus) these illustrations were
printed in colours resembling those of the original plants,
by a recently invented process ; the stipple background that
characterises Dagoty's botanical plates is absent in these. The
same series of prints appeared in a Dutch edition of the work
{Dindelyke Vertoning, etc.), published simultaneously at
Amsterdam, from 1736 to 1748. This is distinguished by three
fine plates in mezzotint by Haid, printed in blue, viz. : an
emblematic frontispiece, representing the goddess Flora, and
portraits of Weinmann and A. E. Bieler. The botanical
plates were preserved for at least half-a-century, as Haid's
son (?) republished them, with an engraved title-page in
French, at Augsburg, in 1787.

About the time that Le Blon was engaged in his work for
" The Picture Office," a young Yorkshireman, named Edward
Kirkall (bom at Sheffield about 1695), who had come up to
London in 1718 and was first engaged in engraving small
designs on metal, started producing colour prints in which
mezzotinting provided the groundwork of the picture, but
he only used a single mezzotinted plate, which furnished the
shadows, the outlines being indicated by etching, which was
done on the same plate. Then the tones were added by one
or two wood blocks engraved in the chiaroscuro manner, so
that the result was a compoimd print, both relief and intaglio
methods being utilised. The pictures were much more
spirited in effect than the ordinary chiaroscuro (Hies, the
boldly-etched outlines and mezzotinted shadows combining
well with the high lights, which stand out in low relief from
the surface of the print, owing to the great pressure used
in the application of the tone blocks to the paper, and to

COLOUR PRINTING

the deep holes that were cut in them ; the " wash " shading
is said to have been printed from pewter. Kirkall was very
fond of engraving ornamental borders to his prints, most of
them being furnished with something of the kind, generally
printed from the tone blocks in the case of the chiaroscuros.
Green seems to have been a favourite colour with this en-
graver, many of his pictures being printed in that tint ; brown
and brick red also occur in the chiaroscuros, most of which
are engraved after pictures in famous collections of his day,
such as those of the Duke of Devonshire and Dr. Mead. One
specially interesting print is a reproduction (1722) of the
chiaroscuro engraving by Ugo da Carpi in 1518, representing
iEneas carrying his father from Troy ; this is tinted from
wood in yellow and brown, but in the black mezzotint impres-
sion, which was issued separately, there is more detail than
in the mezzotint used for the colour print. Of the old style
of chiaroscuro print, the writer has only come across one
example by Kirkall, a small woodcut of a classical landscape,
tinted in green and yellow from other wood blocks. Like the
older engravers by the same process, Kirkall produced his
chiaroscuros in more than one colour ; that of a boar hunt,
after C. Ferrea, for instance (1723), occurs in at least three
states, f.tf., red, green, and reddish-brown. His prints were
not very expensive, as in a filled-in copy of a receipt form he
engraved (in mezzotint and chiaroscuro), he acknowledged
the payment of a guinea, and engaged to deliver twelve prints
in " claro-obscur," when ready, on receipt of another ;
nevertheless Walpole {Cat. of Engravers) says that Kirkall
had " much success, much applause, and no imitators."

In addition to his work as an engraver in chiaroscuro,
Kirkall pubUshed many prints in pure mezzotint, including
a set of Hogarth's " Harlot's Progress," printed in green.
A mezzotint of a '* Storm Scene," after Van Huysum, is printed
in two colours, green and brown, from a single plate at one
impression, a rare and early example of a style of colour print-
ing which became more common later in the century. The

LE SUEUR AND HIS COLOUR PRINTS

cost of producing the chiaroscuro-mezzotints — which necessi-
tated at least one extra working — seems to have been about
a third more than that of the ordinary mezzotints, as the
latter were priced at £2 2s. for sixteen.

Kirkall's method of producing colour prints was imitated
in France a few years afterwards by Nicholas Le Sueur (1690-
1764). About 1725, an eminent art connoisseur, M. A.
de Crozat, projected the publication at Paris of a series of
copperplate reproductions of famous pictures in his own and
other great French collections, including that of Louis XV.
This was a very ambitious scheme, but, like many similar
ones, came to a premature end after several years' work,
only Volume I, consisting of two parts, being published ;
the title-page of the first part of this fine Recueil d'Estampes
is dated 1729, but the second is supposed not to have been
completed until 1742. In all, there are about 240 plates,
in imperial folio size, including many double-page, and some
thirty of these (most of which occur in Part I) were printed in
colours in the chiaroscuro style, the rest being ordinary line
engravings ; only half a dozen are, however, produced solely
from wood blocks, including the " Avenging Angel," after
Tintoretto, and " Diana and Endymion," after S. Concu. In
the other cases the outlines were lightly etched, and the colour-
ing applied from wood blocks, after the manner of Kirkall.
But as mezzotinting was not favoured in France, the engravers
under whose direction Le Sueur worked made no use of that
method in the preparation of these pictures, the shadows
being represented by a second tone block and the lights by the
first. Kirkall seems to have done all the necessary engraving
for his colour prints himself, but Le Sueur was only responsible
for the tone blocks of the Crozat pictures, the etched outlines
being mostly by P. P. A. Robert (1686-1733), or that irrepres-
sible amateur etcher, the Comte de Caylus (1692-1765). Some
of the larger colour prints in this series, like Leonardo's " Day
of Pentecost " and the " St. Prisca Baptised by St. Peter "
of Baglioni, are fairly dignified examples of this style of art,

COLOUR PRINTING

whilst others, such as Bonnatti's " Saint Restoring a Blind
Man's Sight," recall the early German chiaroscuros. Vincent
Le Sueur (an uncle of Nicholas) engraved some of the wood
blocks for the colour work, as in the print after Raphael's
" Hercules." Green and brown, seemingly so inseparable
from chiaroscuro work, are the tints most commonly used,
but the " Sacrifice to Baal " is in red and blue, and in some
prints three tints are seen. In a few cases the green colouring
has faded at the sides of the picture to a muddy brown, this
being particularly noticeable in some prints after Farinati's
designs. In Part II there are two or three line engravings
printed in ink of a yellowish or reddish tinge. The coloured
prints are specially mentioned in the preface to the work,
where also a short account of the history of engraving in
chiaroscuro is given. From this we learn that the name then
applied in Italy to pictures of this character was " three-colour
prints " {estampes de trots teitUes).

If Kirkall's work in England inspired that of the Le Sueurs
in France, it is equally probable that theirs was in turn taken
as a model by two contemporary English engravers, Arthur
Pond (1705-1758), who was also a print collector, and C.
Knapton (1700-1760). The former produced, about 1734-5,
among other prints, a number of etchings, a few of which
are in the " Bartolozzi red " tint ; several are after designs
by Parmegiano, an artist whose work, it will be remembered,
had furnished the earUest chiaroscuro engravers with models.
Pond's reproductions are etched, the colouring being appUed
from wood blocks in the same way as in Le Sueur's prints,
indeed there is very much in common, from a technical point
of view, between the two sets of pictures, the colours used
by Pond being similar to those of Le Sueur, bright greenish-
blues and browns. Pond left directions in his will for the
destruction of the blocks used for his prints, which were
carried into effect by his executors. Knapton's prints, of
the same period as Pond's, are also etchings tinted in chiar-
oscuro, but there is more detail in the etched work, as he

SOME 18th cent. ENGLISH CHIAROSCURISTS

largely affected landscapes after Claude, whereas Pond went
in more for figure studies ; Knapton's work, in fact, except
for the absence of the colouring, rather reminds one of Jack-
son's style, and stands practically by itself at this particular
period. His colouring, if it may be so termed, consists ahnost
entirely of neutral tints, such as greyish-brown and light sepia ;
his inks, like some of Le Sueur's, seem not to have been very
good, as in many cases they have caused discolouration of
the print, with the result that a casual observer might take
some of Knapton's pictures to be merely time-stained etchings,
as the high lights are hardly indicated at all, except in the sky.

Both Pond and Knapton followed the example of the Le
Sueurs in reproducing pictures in well-known collections ;
it is surprising how diffident all the early colour printers seem
to have been in this respect. The " old masters," with a
few modem ones, did duty again and again, the idea of
producing some designs of their own apparently never occiuring
to the engravers in chiaroscuro. There are, of course, excep-
tions, but an original design for a print of this kind is somewhat
of a rarity. Rogers, of the " Collection " to be mentioned
hereafter, stated that a print in chiaroscuro by Stephen
Slaughter, after Parmegiano, was the largest which, up to
that period, had been produced in England, but what this
refers to is uncertain. Slaughter was a portrait-painter
who worked in Ireland about 1730-40, subsequently going
to London, where he died in 1765. The only print by him
that the writer has seen is an etched copy, dated 1733, of a
drawing by Parmegiano in the collection of Dr. Hickman,
to whom Slaughter dedicated it. It is partly tinted in brown
from a wood block, in a style which suggests that it would
have been better if Slaughter had left the etching to speak
for itself.

These combination processes, in which etching and mezzo-
tinting were called in to the aid of the old chiaroscuro method,
nearly pushed the latter out of existence, although in the first
half of the century, say from 1720 to 1740, a niunber of prints

COLOUR PRINTING

of the original type, i,e., printed from wood blocks throughout,
were produced by Count A. M. Zanetti of Venice (1680-1757).
Technically considered, there was little to distinguish them
from their earlier predecessors, the Italian style being naturally
followed by this engraver, who is said to have revived the
art of producing prints in the chiaroscuro style, as a result of
his acquisition of some drawings by Raphael, Parmegiano,
and other old Italian masters. In some of his prints, of which
a collection was published in 1749, the black or outline blocks
show more detail than is usual in chiaroscuro, there being
much cross-hatching in the shadows. His son also engraved
for prints in this manner, and a large picture produced by
him in 1724, " The Discovery of the Cross by St. Helena,"
after Tintoretto, was dedicated to his father in a xylographic
inscription beneath. This is probably rare, as it is not
mentioned by Bartsch, but it has no technical peculiarity
to distinguish it from other work of the kind.

Turning from these minor workers in the field of colour
printing, we come to one who, though nearly foi^otten now,
obtained some little fame in his day, viz. : John Baptist
Jackson, who was an Englishman, though his Christian names
suggest Italian connections. Bom at the conmiencement of
the century, he was brought up as a wood engraver, possibly
under Kirkall, and went to Paris about 1726, where he met
the Le Sueurs, and according to his tale, instructed them how
to produce prints in chiaroscuro on the lines he practised him-
self, besides assisting them with some of the drawings for the
Crozat collection. He was also employed by Papillon, who
accuses him of going behind his back to his customers and
trjdng to sell them his own copies of cuts he had been engaged
upon. After they parted, Jackson went the round of the
Parisian wood engravers, offering his services at almost any
price.

From Paris he went to Rome, thence to Venice about 1731,
where he probably became acquainted with Count Zanetti,
and had opportunities of seeing what had been done by the

JACKSON AND HIS COLOUR PRINTS

earlier Italian workers in the art of producing colour prints
from wood blocks. He helped Joseph Smith, the British
Consul at Venice, to get together his collection of books
and prints, and to him one of his earliest Venetian prints,
a small study of a female carrying a jar, dated 1731, was
dedicated. It is of the usual type, printed in black on a
yellowish ground, with the lights engraved out. A copy of
Rembrandt's " Descent from the Cross," dated 1738, and also
dedicated to Smith, shows a colour scheme of a more advanced
character, there being three shades of brown, as well as grey
and yellow, and the white lights are rather less in evidence.
Through Smith, Jackson became acquainted with the British
Ambassador to the Venetian Republic, Robert D'Arcy, Earl
of Holdemess ; it was under this nobleman's patronage, and
that of others whom Smith had induced to become subscribers,
that Jackson, in 1744, produced a series of twenty-four prints
in chiaroscuro, the subjects being, as usual, taken from designs
by the old masters. These were of the ordinary Italian type,
but a little later he published half a dozen landscapes in
imitation of water-colours, i.e., the usual neutral tints were
abandoned in favour of bright colouring.

These were dedicated to Lord Holdemess, and perhaps
represented the result of Jackson's earliest efforts to produce
genuine coloured pictures ; there is, however, a crude ugly
print (probably of his own designing) of the Dead Christ with
attendant women, which may possibly be still earlier. It
is of large size (about 12 x 14 inches) and is tinted in two
shades of blue, a red, a brown, a flesh tint and a grey, but is
an unpleasing amateurish kind of production ; there is a copy
in the Technical Library of the St. Bride Foundation. The
landscapes, also most likely designed by himself, show rather
better work. They are large pictures (24 x 16 inches)
of the Italian classical type of the day, with groups of ruins,
etc. ; as regards the colouring, the most prominent tint
is blue, which is applied freely to sky, hills and stonework ;
five or six colour blocks seem to have been generally used,

COLOUR PRINTING

although when Jackson was in Paris he contrived to obtain
ten tints with only four blocks, no doubt by blending and
superimposing the colours judiciously. He preferred to use
the copperplate press for the production of his prints, and
the great pressure to which the blocks were subjected has left
its traces on the backs of the pictures, on which, too, the oil
in the colours he used has left stains. These prints may
be regarded as the first genuine ones printed in colours that
were ever produced for public circulation by an English artist,
although not in England. A few of Jackson's other pictures,
such as the portrait of Algernon Sidney, have long inscriptions
in large roman letters below, engraved in intaglio on the black
block, which also carries a good deal of cross-hatched shadow,
suggesting that it belongs to the earlier period. The portfolio
of Jackson's colour prints at the British Museum contains
a spirited design (about 36 x 20 inches) representing a battle
scene, somewhat after the manner of the elder Rugendas.
It is sine nota, and is altogether different from Jackson's other
productions, both in style and colouring, so that it is probably
not his at all.

He returned from Venice to England in 1746, and some time
after conceived the idea of producing pictorial paperhangings,
printed in colours by his process, perhaps finding but little sale
for his prints. Wood engraving was then a debased, not
to say despised art, and the public seems to have taken but
little interest in anj^hing in colour that was not the product
of brush-work, whilst line engraving on copper was the only
process thought much of, by the dilettanti of that day, for pur-
poses of book illustration. Paperhangings of the ordinary sort
had been but little used in the early part of the eighteenth
century, except by the poorer classes, and the little colour decor-
ation they possessed was mostly applied by hand in blotches
from the surface of smooth wooden blocks, much in the
same way as the prints in the Block Books of the middle of
the fifteenth century are said to have been produced ; in fact,
Bagford, in one of his MSS., directly compares the two methods.

COLOUR-PRINTED PAPERHANGINGS

As there was then no means of producing paper in continuous
lengths, paperhangings were in twelve-yard-long " pieces,"
made by pasting several sheets together end to end, each
sheet having a superficies of about a square yard, which was
the unit on which this class of goods was taxed by the Excise ;
the selling price was then from Is. to Is. 6d. a piece. One
William Bailey obtained an EngUsh patent in 1692 for a
method of printing paperhangings in colours, but the details
of his process are unknown. Many books printed in the
first half of the eighteenth century have, as end papers, pieces
of figured designs printed in colours, which probably represent
the paperhanging material of the period. The design is usually
continuous, the same block being applied repeatedly until the
entire surface of the sheet was coloured. Some of the designs
are of a geometrical character, in two colours, like those seen
on the cheap papers of our day, but others were of a more
elaborate " rococo " order, printed in three or four tints, often
red, yellow, purple and brown, with a stippled background
engraved on one of the blocks. There was not usually any
outline block, the design being built up from the successive
colour impressions. The better class papers had a gold ground,
on which the design was printed in a single colour in slight
relief, further colour being frequently applied in irregular
patches by a pad or brush. These interesting examples
of early colour printing from blocks merit more attention than
has yet been bestowed upon them.

Returning now to Jackson, we find that he set up a factory
at Battersea for the production of his pictorial paperhangings,
and, in 1754, pubUshed an Essay an Engraving and PrinHng
in Chiaroscuro, in order to direct public attention to it. In
the King's Library at the British Museum a copy of this book
is shown, with an inscription denoting that it was the first
work, pubhshed in England, that was illustrated with coloured
pictures. In a sense this is true, although Le Blon's Cohriito
of thirty years before should have been borne in mind. Jack-
son writes in the third person, and gives only twenty pages

COLOUR PRINTING

of letterpress matter, with eight plates ; four of these latter
are chiaroscuro prints in various brown and yellow tints, a
bust of Democritus, a statue of Apollo, etc., good of their kind,
but in no way out of the ordinary. They are, however, much
better productions than the four coloured prints, which are
really wretched things, though some allowance must be made
for the discolouration caused by the oil in the colours, as Jack-
son took credit for the way in which the substance of the
paper was impregnated with the oil, as compared with the
volatile nature of water-colours. The book contains a few
brief allusions to chiaroscuro work in general, but more to
Jackson's own, and he claimed that the Italian method had
not been attempted by anyone else since the banning of
the sixteenth century, a statement which does not say much
for his knowledge of the subject. The production of " lasting
and genteel furniture," as he termed his wall-papers, seems
to have been conducted on a fairly large scale, as some fifty
hands were employed. The colours were applied on a tinted
ground, and the subjects were often bordered, d la Kirkall.
Horace Walpole mentions the matter in one of his letters,
but ridiculed Jackson's idea of decorating wall-paper with
reproductions of designs by Titian and other old masters.
He refers also to some " Gothic " paper, the panels of which
Bentley had promised to paint for him ; this suggests that
he did not much care for the colour-printed sort, though
he liked the Italian landscapes.

Jackson's scheme was not successful, possibly owing to the
fact that the old method of printing paperhangings from blocks
was considered to be too slow and unsatisfactory. In 1764,
J. Fryer patented the present one of printing in colours from
engraved copper cylinders, which were placed in a press, though
as late as 1786 J. Bunnett proposed the use of wooden cylinders.
In his later years, Jackson was at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he
met Thos. Bewick, the wood engraver, to whom he gave samples
of his prints and a drawing of the press by which they were
produced, at the same time telling him that he had been

BEWICK ON JACKSON

patronised by the King of France (Louis XV) ; but Bewick
does not seem to have been much impressed with this boast,
as he says of the prints that " in my opinion none of them
looked well." As he also refers to them as Scripture subjects
after the old masters, printed from two or three blocks, they
were, perhaps, some of Jackson's earlier prints in chiaroscuro.
His later methods were apparently still practised by others,
as Bewick mentions having seen wood blocks printed in
colours by paper-stainers, so as to almost equal good paintings,
" which leads me to wish that this method could be pursued "
for the embellishment of the homes of the people. Referring
again to Jackson, he saj^ that when he left Newcastle he
was " enfeebled with age," and that he ended his days in an
asylmn (he probably meant a refuge or shelter, not a mad-
house) under the care of Sir Gilbert Elliott, Bart., at some
place on the Border, near the Teviot or on Tweedside ; this is
supposed to have been in 1780.

Notwithstanding what Jackson says in his Essay, the
art of engraving and printing in chiaroscuro did not begin
and end with him, even in the eighteenth century, as several
other artists practised it. C. W. E. Dietrich (1712-1774),
the well-known German etcher and painter to the Court of
Saxony, was one of them, though the writer has only seen a
single production of his in this style, a study of a beggar,
printed in black and two shades of brown, and dated 1757.

Next comes a Frenchman, J. M. B. Papillon (1698-17 — ),
best known in this line by his Traite Histonque et Pratique
de la Graveur en Bois, published at Paris in 1766, in two octavo
volumes. A translation of that part of the work which relates
to engraving and printing in chiaroscuro will be found in
Savage's Decorative Printing, in which also some of Papillon's
" history " appears, but this is now mostly discredited. In the
second volume is a progressive series of five plates, illustrating
the steps necessary in the production of a print in chiaroscuro ;
first there is the green ground, with the lights engraved out,
next an impression from a yellow-brown block, followed by

COLOUR PRINTING

one in red-brown, after which is the black outline block, a copy
of the finished print completing the series. Here we can
study a chiaroscuro print in the making, an advantage seldom
offered by examples in collections.

The last of the old school of engravers in chiaroscuro was an
English amateur, John Skippe, of Ledbury, who was educated
at Merton College, Oxford, and afterwards studied art under
Vemet. Apart from his prints, he is almost entirely unknown
to fame. Recent though his period is, his productions appear
to be very scarce, being probably mostly circulated amongst
his friends. Chatto, who was almost a contemporary, knew
of but three prints in chiaroscuro by Skippe ; Hardie speaks
of a " First " and a " Second " Part of some otherwise
untitled series, dated 1781, each part " containing ten prints
engraven in chiaroscuro." The writer has a folio volume of
contemporary date containing twenty-eight prints by Skippe,
and as five of the twenty or so at the British Museum are not
in his collection, Skippe must have done at least thirty-three,
not a great output, considering it was spread over some forty
years. The earlier ones are in brown, and a solid black
background covers a good part of the print. A " Leda and the
Swan" occurs in this series, one of which (in the British
Musemn), is dated on the back in MS., " No. 3, November
30th, 1770," with the artist's autograph, and there is another,
in the same style, of " Susanna and the Elders."

Skippe's prints are in the Italian manner, and fairly well
done ; as usual, the indispensable " Old Masters " furnished
the designs, several of them being after Parmegiano. The
first print in the writer's collection is, perhaps, the general
title to the two sets Mr. Hardie refers to ; the lettering is in
Latin, printed from type, and reads (translation) : " The follow-
ing pictures, engraved on wood in hours of sportive leisure,
in the endeavour to restore an almost lost art, are devoted
and dedicated to his friends, and to every lover of the fine
arts, by John Skippe, who is only anxious to obtain their
favour and patronage . 178 1 . " The date is not printed, but has

SKIPPE, THE LAST OF THE CHIAROSCURISTS

been stamped in by hand afterwards, and as most of the prints
that follow are dated 1782 and 1783, Skippe probably made
up collections from time to time for his friends, dating the
general title as required. From the dedicatory inscriptions
below the prints, we learn that among these friends were
Benjamin Blayney, B.D., Sir James Edwards, Sir John
Strange (British Ambassador to Venice), Sir John Lawe,
J. B. Malchair, and John Symonds, LL.D., Regius Professor
of History at Cambridge. A few of the prints are dated 1809,
but are not so good as the earlier ones, some of which appear
to have been re-engraved at the later date. Two large designs,
after Bandinelli and Michael Angelo respectively (1782), were
engraved in outline only, and printed in brown ink on pink
and on blue paper, with good effect. Three or four tone blocks
were generally used in Skippe's prints, mostly browns, ochres,
or olive greens in various shades ; the dedications were engraved
on copperplate, and printed separately on a slip of plain
paper.

When Skippe died, the art of producing prints in the original
chiaroscuro style may be said to have expired with him, there
having been no attempt at a genuine revival since his day.
Between the Skippe and Savage periods came Fried. W.
Gubitz (1786-1870), a German wood engraver, who showed
a liking for colouring of a more modem type than that of the
average chiaroscurist. Thos. Bewick refers to him in his
Memoirs, Gubitz had sent some specimens of his chromoxylo-
graphic work, which Bewick greatly admired, considering
them " like beautiful little paintings, they might indeed be
said to be perfection." Examples of his colour prints do
not seem at all common ; the British Museiun has only one,
a portrait of a German lady, in eight states or printings. As
regards brilliancy of colour, it stands, like the date at which it
was most probably produced, midway between the eighteenth
and nineteenth century styles of wood block colour prints.

In Chatto & Jackson's book on the history of engraving
on wood is a long account of a colour print of " Christ and

COLOUR PRINTING

a Globe," which bore the date of 1543, and was attributed
to L. Cranach, on the evidence of a device supposed to be his.
It was printed from about ten blocks, which is in itself a
sufficient indication that it did not date from so early a period,
in fact Chatto himself doubted it, and was inclined to consider
the print (which then belonged to Branston, the London wood
engraver) as the work of a German engraver named Unger,
who flourished late in the eighteenth century. It was shown
at the Caxton Exhibition in 1877, and was then attributed
to Gubitz, who held the post of Professor of wood engraving
at the Royal Prussian Academy of Art.

One occasionally comes across a comparatively modem
book reminiscent of the old manner. An edition of Words-
worth's Pictorial Greece, published by Orr in 1856, contains
a large number of woodcuts printed in black on a light ochre-
tinted ground, the lights being in most cases engraved out.
About the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, a series of
oblong folio woodcut Bible illustrations by a German artist,
J. Schnorr, were re-issued by a London publisher, with the
addition of two tone blocks, a reddish-brown and a bluish-
green, to each ; the block for the brown also carried a broad
decorative border extending round three sides of the picture,
as well as the ornamental design below the lettering at the
bottom. There is nothing to indicate who was the engraver or
printer, but these prints are of a decidedly original type, and of
interest as constituting a sort of connecting link between the old
workers in chiaroscuro, like Skippe, and the new, such as
Evans or Leighton. A fourth colour was obtained in places
by the two tone blocks being printed over each other. The
illustrations to R. C. Trevelyan's Polyphemus and other
Poems (1901) are printed in black and a single tone, the block
for the latter having the lights engraved out, in a still more
distinct approach to the ancient chiaroscuro style, though
the designs, by R. E. Fry, lack the finish and vigour of the
older ones. The pictures are accompanied by xylographic
inscriptions, and the title-page, with its bold lettering and

WATTS' COLOURED WOODCUTS

decorative border, is a not unpleasing piece of chiaroscuro
colour work, refreshing as furnishing a variation from the
ahnost universal '* three-colour."

Charles Rogers' Collection of Prints in imitation of drawings
(Lond., 1778) contains a large outline woodcut by Simon
Watts, after the " Virgin " of L. Cambraso, printed in a
yellowish-brown tone, and dated 1763. This obtained the
premimn which the Society of Arts had offered for the best
engraving on wood, and is much in advance of the examples
of that art seen in book illustrations of the period.

e— (2298)

CHAPTER IV

COLOUR PRINTING IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Section II

^ INTAGUO PRINTING PROCESSES; STIPPLE, AQUATINT, ETC.

I HE relief printing processes for

the production of colour prints

I having now been dealt with

- pretty fully, so far as the century

under notice is concerned, we

may turn to a consideration of

those methods that depended

upon the use of plates engraved

in intaglio. Three of these,

viz. : line engraving, etching, and

mezzotinting, were older than the

eighteenth century, and whilst the first-named never made any

figure worth speaking of in connection with colour printing —

save experimentally in the pages of Teyler's book — etching,

though it was occasionally supplemented by colour printing,

has only within the last few years come to take a prominent

place as a primary method of producing coloured pictures.

The printing of mezzotinted plates in colours is essentially
a late eighteenth century art, and in addition to it there were
two other processes, invented in that century, which were
utilised for colour work in the same way, i.e.. aquatinting
and stipple engraving. Indeed, as Baron Portalis points
out (Gas. des Beaux Arts. 1888), whenever a new method of
printing in black was invented, its introduction was speedily
followed by its adaptation to colour printing. Stipple engrav-
ing may be regarded as the earlier of these two methods, and
like mezzotint and aquatint is a " grain " process, the grain
being formed of a series of dots, carefully arranged with

THE RISE OF STIPPLE ENGRAVING

reference to the planes and modelling of the subject. It
constitutes a reversal of the cribl6 engraving already mentioned,
and is, in a sense, a combination of etching and engraving,
the dots being usually marked with a needle through an etching
ground, bitten in by acid in the ordinary way, and afterwards
added to and deepened with the burin. The method had its
birth in attempts to imitate on the copper plate the texture,
if we may use such a term, of the lines in a crayon drawing.

This is one of the very few inventions connected with the
graphic arts which was not " made in Germany," as the
first engraver to practise it was a Dutch goldsmith, Jean
Lutma (1584-1669), who used a small hanuner or punch —
as do the engravers of copper cylinders for wall-paper printing
at this day — to produce a sort of grain in his plates, not unlike
that of aquatint in general appearance. Several engravings
of his in this manner (" Opus Mallei ") have come down to
us, including a portrait bust of Tacitus, in which the hair
resembles coarse stippling. The further improvement of
this method is due to a Frenchman, Jean Chas. Fran9ois
(bom at Nancy, 1717, died at Paris, 1769), who made his first
experiments in this direction in 1740, but got no further than
the production of a few proofe. The idea seems to have been
then laid aside for some years, but in 1751 Francois revived
it, and produced more proofs, none of which, however, were
for public circulation. Among them was a large engraved
facsimile of a drawing in red chalk after C. Vanloo, representing
a "Corps du Garde." In 1756-7 he threw himself into
the task in earnest, and brought his new method under the
notice of the Royal Academy of Painting at Paris, who formally
expressed their approval of it in November, 1757. ' This
engraving " au maniftre crayon " attracted the notice of
Louis XV, and Francois having explained and demonstrated
his process, he was complimented with the title of " Engraver
to the King," and what was more to the purpose, was granted
an annual pension of 6,000 livres. Many of his early coloured
stipple engravings were done to imitate drawings in black

COLOUR PRINTING

and white crayons on blue or grey paper. He next proceeded
a step further in the scale of colour imitation, introducing
a third plate to simulate red chalk lines. A number of stipple
portraits in the crayon style appear in Volume II of Saverien's-
Histoire des Philosophes Modernes (Paris, 1761 ; in all the
other volumes they are in black only) ; two plates were used,
i,e,, for the red and the black parts respectively, but the effect
can hardly be considered satisfactory, which fact perhaps
led to a return to monotint in the succeeding volumes. The
only edition the writer has seen is in 12mo, but in the Print
Room at the British Museum is a proof of an aquatinted title-
page to the same work in quarto, printed in brown, which was
reproduced by Mrs. Frankau in her Eighteenth Century Colour
Prints.

Francois was followed by Louis M. Bonnet (1743-1793),
who is said to have engraved a thousand plates during his
comparatively short life. He was a rather nomadic artist,
going from Paris to St. Petersburg, from there to London,
and then back to Paris, where he gratified his English customers
by carrying on business au magasin Anglais, and still kept up
a connection with England, through his London agent, Vivares.
His first three-colour engraving au tnaniire crayon was a portrait
of a young girl after F. Boucher, a French painter and engraver
of some note in his day, and was printed in black, red and
white, a separate plate being used for each tint. Boimet
claimed that he alone possessed the secret of printing in white,
but a contemporary (Varin) produced engravings on blue
paper in the black crayon style, and heightened them with
white. A characteristic pair of two-colour stipples by Bonnet,
printed in black and red, are Jubier's " Les Pficheurs " and
" Les Laveuses," after Huet. A Uttle later Bonnet added
another plate to his series, to imitate blue chalk, an example
of which occurs in his print of a " Yoimg Woman Reading,"
after Boucher ; female subjects and love scenes furnishing
the material for most of his productions. Some female heads
engraved by him after Leclerc were surrounded by a sort of

RYLAND, THE FIRST ENGLISH STIPPLE

frame, printed in gold. On some of these prints the invention
of this method is ascribed to one Louis Marin, thought by some
to be a pseudonym of Bonnet's, with the statement that it was
first put into operation on November 11th, 1774. Bonnet
explained and demonstrated his process, with the aid of eight
colour plates, in Le pastel en gravure, invenU et execuii par
Louis Bonnet (Paris, 1769).

Another French engraver in the crayon style was Gilles
Demarteau (bom at Liege, 1722) who became a member of
the French Academy in 1764, died in 1776, and was followed
by his son of the same names. The elder Demarteau is
credited with about 600 engravings of various kinds ; so far
as the coloured stipples are concerned, they were mostly in
black and red only. Another worker in the same field was the
Sieur Magny, by whom Gonord's portrait of J. D. L'Empereur
was reproduced through the mediiun of this " new art," which
he claimed to have invented. A Dutch engraver, J.J. Bijlaert
(1734-1809), also practised the method, and published details
of it in a pamphlet he issued at Leyden in 1772. He confined
himself to two-colour plates, red and black.

The way having been thus prepared on the Continent, all
was ready for the introduction of the new art into England,
which is due to William Wynne Ryland (bom in London,
1732) who, after a course of art instraction in his native
land, went to Paris to perfect his education in that respect.
During his stay in the gay French capital, the amusements
and follies of which must have suited him well, and coming
into frequent contact with Boucher, so many of whose designs
were reproduced au maniere crayon, the future candidate
for Jack Ketch's attentions soon got to hear of, and to leam,
that art ; but he made no use of his knowledge at the time,
or for many years after, as line was his forte, and moreover
it better suited the English taste. After he settled down
in London again, he received the appointment of Engraver
to the King (George III) and an annual salary of ;f200 ; this
must have been a mere drop in the ocean of the extravagances

COLOUR PRINTING

which his partiality for the fair sex led him into, and while
casting about, like the Athenians of old, for some new thing,
wherewith to rehabilitate his credit, he bethought himself of the
crayon method of engraving he had learned in Paris long before.

About this time {i.e., 1774-5) he had obtained an introduction
to that gifted, if somewhat finical lady artist, Angelica Kauff-
man (bom at Coire, in Switzerland, 1741, died at Rome, 1807),
who had come to England some ten years before, under fash-
ionable auspices, and was elected R.A. in 1768. She excelled
in what the printsellers now term " decorative and fancy
subjects," which needed some softer and tenderer mode of
interpretation than either the hardness of line or the duskiness
of mezzotint. Ryland tried his hand at reproducing one or
two of her drawings in stipple, and they were both highly
pleased with the result. When the new-fashioned prints
were put on the market, the public expressed similar apprecia-
tion, and had Ryland only possessed a little strength of mind
and steadiness of purpose, fame and fortune would have been
assured. He opened a shop in the Strand, wherein the prints
he engraved might be purchased, and for a time all went well
with him.

The stipple engravings of Ryland and his contemporaries
and successors in the art were very different from those of
the early French engravers, whose productions were mostly
limited to reproductions of crayon drawings in line, with a
minimum of shading and detail, whereas Ryland and the
other Enghsh followers of the new craze generally engraved
over the whole surface of the plate, so that their application
of the process enabled them to imitate a drawing in wash
as well as one in line. Some of the earliest stipple engravings
executed in England did, however, follow the original French
manner, which could be fairly well imitated by etching in the
" soft ground " style, and puncturing or rouletting the dots.
In the Collection of Prints published by Rogers in 1778 are
some two-colour etchings in stipple by Simon Watts, which
were printed from two plates, one for each tint ; the earliest

LAURIE AND HIS COLOUR PROCESS

(in Vol. II) is dated 1770, and is a portrait of Helena Forman,
the second wife of Rubens. In this example the costume
is in black line stipple, and the hands and face in red. In
Volume I are reproductions in line stipple of Zucchero's
portrait of Queen Elizabeth, and of a portrait of Robert Dudley,
Earl of Leicester, which are dated 1773, and are of the same
character as the other. But the style which Ryland practised
came to prevail in the end, and was so distinctively English
that engravings so executed were said in France to be au
maniire Anglais,

Ryland seems to have made no attempt at imitating the
French method of engraving a special plate for each tone
required in the production of a multi-colour print, preferring,
instead, to ink a single plate in several colours with the aid of
a stiunp brush. In this he had the assistance of an expert
copperplate printer, Seigneuer, an Alsatian, who afterwards set
up in business in that line on his own account. One great
advantage of the new method was that it did away with the
necessity of engraving specially for colour work, as the engraved
design on the single plate, being quite complete in itself, could
be inked for printing (a) in black, (b) in the reddish-brown tint
so common to the stipple engravings of the period, or (c) in a
number of colours.

The invention of the process must be chiefly credited to a
London engraver, Robert Laurie (1749-1804), who conununi-
cated to the Society of Arts in 1776 a method of producing
copperplate pictures in colours at a single impression, by
inking the plate with stump brushes. He contemplated the
use of plates engraved in a combination of mezzotint and
stipple, with outline etching ; his main idea seems to have
been the production of book illustrations at a cheap rate. The
Society awarded him a prize of thirty guineas. An engraved
copperplate having been selected and cleaned, the printer was
provided with a water-colour copy of the picture to be produced,
in which the colour scheme was clearly indicated. A ground-
tint ink was put on the plate first of aU, usually brown,

COLOUR PRINTING

black or grey, which was not, however, allowed to get into
the lines or dots of the picture, but simply to coat in a very
slight degree the plain surface of the plate. The brighter
colours, such as blue, red and green, were inked in next with
a stump brush or piece of rag — i la poupie, as the French
term it, the dabber used to apply the ink being shaped some-
what like a wooden doll (French, ^oi*^^^)— ^ach tint in its
proper place, as shown in the water-colour the printer had
before him ; the flesh tint followed, the application of this
being perhaps the most difficult part of the whole process,
as in some cases a fresh ground tint had to be put on to receive
it ; last of all, the colours had to be blended or merged into
one another at the points where the various tints met, in order
to produce a perfect and harmonious result. Great care had,
of course, to be taken that the colours did not get into any
Unes or dots in which they were not intended to appear,
the " wiping " being fully as delicate and important an
operation as the inking. In fact, the entire process was
eminently one in which only a talented and sympathetic
operator could produce the best results. The work of the
artist, or the engraver, went for little if the picture was
"" botched " in printing, and thus the finest examples of this
class of work are not necessarily the best engravings, but
simply those in which most care has been bestowed on the
inking and printing.

The process does not materially differ from that followed
to-day for producing photogravures and other prints from
intaglio plates in several colours at a single impression. The
rate of production was necessarily very slow, as the whole
cycle of operations had to be gone through afresh for every
copy required. So far as the colouring was concerned, almost
ever3rthing depended upon the skilfulness, or otherwise, with
which the inking was done ; a badly inked plate produced a
smudgy impression, no matter how good the engraving itself
might be. Even the most skilful inker, however, could
rarely apply tiny patches of colour satisfactorily to minute

THE 18th cent. COLOUR PRINT

details like eyes, lips, etc., and thus only a very small proportion
of the eighteenth century engravings printed in colours are
absolutely innocent of touching-up by hand.

The colour print now began, for the first time in the history
of pictorial art, to be in public favour, there being almost as
great a demand for them as there is to-day, having regard,
of course, to the fact that the supply was vastly greater
than it is now. The print collector then enjoyed the good
fortune of being able to purchase these beautiful productions
of the colour printer's art at a mere fraction of what is now
asked for them. To Ryland, as to many other contemporary
engravers, the prevalent rage for these prints brought in a
small fortune, but in his case the money thus acquired was
spent much faster than it was possible to earn it by legitimate
means. An extravagant mistress and fashionable tastes and
aspirations led to his forging a bill in order to procure more
funds, and the offence being discovered he was arrested,
tried and convicted, and like Dr. Dodd half a dozen years
before, neither his position nor his talents could save him from
a felon's death at Tyburn in 1783. Angelica Kauffman, too,
had her imhappy love affairs, but ultimately married A.
Zucchi, R.A., in 1781, and left London almost directly after-
wards. Some years later, she settled in Rome, and there
ended her days.

The void in that branch of the art world concerned with
designing for stipple engraving, which her departure caused,
was worthily filled by J. B. Cipriani (1727-1785)— who, after
studying at Rome, came to England in 1755 — ^whilst Ryland's
mantle fell on the shoulders of Francis Bartolozzi, another
Florentine, one of the most prolific engravers of that or any
age, though it is doubtful whether he really engraved in toto
the vast number of plates to which his name is attached,
as even his long life would scarcely have sufficed for such a
stupendous task. Bom in 1725, the son of a goldsmith, his
talents soon displayed themselves at the conclusion of his art
training, and for some time he was employed by Joseph

COLOUR PRINTING

Wagner at Venice, engraving for various publications. In
1764 he came to London, and soon attracted the notice of
the young King, George III, to whom he was appointed
Engraver at a salary of ;f300 ; by 1768 he was an R.A. Line
engraving was his branch for a few years, but when the craze
for stipple engraving set in Bartolozzi was not slow to take
advantage of it, and to appreciate its money-making powers.
A large number of his stipples were produced in colours, but
line engravings seem never to have been experimented with
in that direction, though occasionally printed in red.

To write in detail of the stipple engravers whose productions
were printed in colours, in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, would require a volmne ; from the
view point of this book, however, such a task is not necessary,
as to the colour printer one such print is very much like another,
and such considerations as " states " may well be left to the
dealer or the collector. In any case, an excellent and com-
prehensive account of " Old English Colour Prints," from
the pen of Mr. Malcolm C. Salaman, formed the last Special
Winter Number of The Studio, and as it also has the advantage
of being fully and finely illustrated, the writer cannot do
better than refer to its pages those of his readers who are
desirous of knowing more about this interesting subject, and
by way of excuse he may repeat Mr. Salaman's remark:
" Of the stipple engravers who made pretty and attractive
colour prints, their name is legion, while these pages are
necessarily limited."

What has just been said about the printed multi-colour
stipple engraving also applies to the engraving in mezzotint,
which was treated in the same manner, at the period under
notice, for the production of impressions in colour ; it seems,
however, to have been much less seldom used for this purpose
than the stipples, probably for the reason that its surface was
more delicate and thus liable to damage. Of the forty prints
which Mr. Salaman reproduced to accompany his monograph
just referred to, only three are mezzotints, all the rest being

18th cent, mezzotints IN COLOUR

stipples, although the proportion of the one species to the
other, so far as colour impressions are concerned, was probably
not quite so small as this suggests. Mezzotints were sometimes
produced in multi-colour by Continental engravers, such as'
J. P. Pickler (1765-1806) and F. Wrenck (17 — 1830), but these
may be regarded as merely the exceptions which proved the
rule that this branch of the colour printing art was distinctively
English. As the use of the stump brush on a mezzotinted plate
was not calculated to improve its surface, the colouring was
seldom lavish, was indeed often employed in rather a niggardly
fashion, even when the plates were expressly prepared for
printing in colours. An example is afforded by J. Young's
series of Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey (Lond., 1815), the
history of which fine work is somewhat curious. In 1806 the
Turkish Government consigned to its Ambassador in England a
case of portraits of the Turkish Sovereigns, with instructions that
they were to be placed in the hands of a competent engraver,
for the purpose of reproduction ; Yoimg was entrusted with
the work, and in the following year a specimen plate was
despatched to Constantinople and approved of. On its
return the other pictures were put in hand, but the deposition
and death of Sultan Selim III led to the project being aban-
doned, and Young, consequently, found that all his time and
labour would go for nothing, unless he could make some use
of the plates himself; the Turkish Government ultimately
consented to this, and the volume of portraits was the result.
Only a very limited niunber of copies was produced, as the
" process of colour printing tends so materially to injure the
plates." Although it was stated that " the impressions
have all been printed in colour from the pictures," there is
in reality very little press colouring on them ; the greater
part of the surface is in black ; the hands and face are printed
in a flesh tint, and that part of the costume which required
a broad mass of colour is usually printed also, but most of
the other colour was put on by hand, it being seldom that
more than two printed colours appear in a plate in addition

COLOUR PRINTING

to black. The frontispiece is in black, yellow and blue. Dr.
Thornton's New lUustraiion of the Sexual System (of Linnaeus) ,
published in 1807, contains a few mezzotints partly printed in
colour, but supplemented by much hand work. Most of the
plates in that work are, however, aquatints, and as such will
be referred to presently.

A few eighteenth or early nineteenth century engraved plates
still exist, and are now and then used to produce copies for the
benefit (?) of the tyro in print collecting ; many other prints
are reproduced in photogravure from original impressions,
but in the case of stipples the reproductive process most
commonly employed is lithography. Of such well-known prints
as, for example, Wheatley's " Cries of London," there must
be an almost constant flow of modem copies into the market.
As a rule, these common imitations of stipple engravings are
coloured by hand, but of late the chromo-lithographer seems
to have cut into the work, and to have produced facsimiles
from impressions in colours in such a way that the tints seem
to run into one another at the edges, just as they do in genuine
old colour prints, but the paper, the absolutely smooth surface,
and the fresh look, combine to betray modernity, in spite of the
usual presence of a dirty old frame, and a price about twenty-
five times that of the cost of production. The late Mr. A. W.
Tuer gave precise directions how to detect these modem-
antique prints, but as they have greatly multiplied since
his day, it can only be assumed that the ignorant are much
more numerous than the knowing, in the ranks of old coloured
print collectors.

Stipple engravings printed in colours were very rarely used
as book illustrations, and mezzotints hardly at all, though
in monochrome both were fairly common. The facility
with which the same plate could be used for taking impressions
of either description often led to a few copies of a particular
work having the prints in one state, and all the rest in the
other, or occasionally, as in the portrait of Linnaeus in Thom-
ton's Sexual System, the plate might be present in both states,

SOME 18th cent. PRINTS IN COLOUR

though this was usually confined to special copies. One of the
best-known collections in book form of stipple engravings
in colours is the series of reproductions, by Bartolozzi, of
Holbein's Portraits of Personages at the Court of Henry VIII,
published in 1799 by J. Chamberlaine. The originals were
drawn in outline with coloured chalks, hence the stipple
reproductions were rather of the earlier French than of the later
English type. The colouring was simple, a flesh pink for the
face and hands and a brown for the hair or head-dress, in repre-
senting which line engraving was in part employed. It is a fine
series of ninety plates, and for many people possesses far more
interest than a collection of " fancy " subjects after Cipriani
or Kauffman, with the stereotyped propitiatory grin on the
faces of the nymphs and maidens, and the almost inseparable
adjuncts of stringy drapery, flowers, l3n:es, etc. Hamilton,
Adams & Co. reproduced the plates by lithography in 1884.

An edition of Gessner's Death of Abd, in the French trans-
lation of Hubert, published at Paris in 1793, contains six
illustrations printed in colours at a single impression from
stipple plates, which were engraved by Colbert, Casenave,
and Clement, from designs by W. Monsiau. These are fairly
representative examples of this style of chromography, and,
in the British Museum copy at least, contain no colour that
was not applied by the press. Several other books, beautifully
illustrated in the same style, were published in Paris about this
time — the most turbulent period of the Revolution. Among
them may be mentioned a French version of Milton's Paradise
Lost, with a dozen stipple engravings printed in colours after
designs by Schall (1792); Florian's rendering of Cervantes'
Galatea (1793), and Vade's (Euvres Poissardes (1796), each
of which has four coloured stipples by Monsiau.

Some fine examples of colour printing from stippled plates
appear in Tresham & Ottley's Gallery of British Pictures
(1818), but, as in most works of this kind, it is almost impos-
sible to find one which has not been more or less touched-up
by hand. On a few of the plates, however, like F. Baroccio's

COLOUR PRINTING

" Madonna del Gatto," or G. Romano's " Holy Family," the
amount of hand-colouring is small. The engravings were
mostly executed by pupils of Bartolozzi, including P. W.
Tomkins, Medland, Cardon, etc.

A stipple engraving, printed in colours, of that famous old
London printer, Wm. Bowyer, by J. J. Chapman, was published
in 1800. Amongst other engravers whose work was occasionally
reproduced in colours may be mentioned Richard Earlom,
S. W. Reynolds, Capt. W. Baillie, WiUiam Ward, James Ward,
and J. R. Smith ; the productions of the last three have
provided subjects for a couple of interesting monographs by
Mrs. Julia Frankau, published in 1904 and 1902 respectively.
In each case the volume of text was accompanied by a portfolio
of prints, which are of special interest as being actual stipples
and mezzotints, not photogravure reproductions, as was the
case in Mrs. Frankau's EigkUenth Century Colour Prints.
Many of these fine modem copies of famous old engravings
were printed in colours by the old method, and, needless to
say, the publications in which these beautiful pictures were
issued were expensive, but those who could afford to acquire
them can boast of possessing practical illustrative evidence
of the fact that the art of engraving on copper is not yet quite
gone from us. Some excellent chromo-lithographed repro-
ductions of eighteenth century colour prints appear in the
posthumous " Autobiographica " of the late W. E. Vaughan,
the Brighton print-dealer (1900).

The great period in the production of stipples and mezzo-
tints in colours may be considered to have closed with the
departure of Bartolozzi in 1802 for Lisbon, where he occupied
the post of Director of the National Academy until his death,
but colour prints of this character continued to be published
until well into the nineteenth century, though an era of deca-
dence soon set in. The Fleurs PoeHques of P. Denne-Baron
(Paris, 1825) contains sixteen stipple engravings of flowers,
printed in two or three colours at a single impression, rather
a late example of the kind. Still later ones may be found in

ODDS AND ENDS OF COLOUR WORK

at least some copies of Capt. John Ross' Second Voyage to
the Arctic Regions, (London, 1835) ; included amongst the
illustrations are a few crude mezzotints, inscribed at the foot,
" Printed in colours by C. Lahee." They are in two colours,
black and blue, a third, red, being added by hand.

An example of a different kind is Emil Lecomte's Melanges
D'Ornetnents Divers (Paris, 1838), which contains seventy-
three full-page plates of decorative designs, of classical and
renaissance types, twenty-four of them being printed in
two or three colours, apparently worked into the lines by
a stump brush or some similar method. Still later work of
this description is seen in Parables of Our Lord (Lond., J.
Mitchell, 1851). The line engravings, by Goodall after
J. Franklin, are printed in black, that portion of the text
which occurs on the same page being in Gothic letter, printed
in red, with a large ornamental initial in blue. This arrange-
ment alternates with full pages of text printed wholly in
red, the initial in these cases being in black ; the entire work
was engraved, and the pages— each of which is surrounded
by a red-line border — printed in two or three colours at a
single impression, each part being inked separately by hand.
The fad of producing coloured pictures on silk or satin, followed
occasionally by the publishers of some of the illustrated
papers of our day, had its counterpart in the eighteenth century,
and one of J. Harding's engravings, *' The Schoolmistress," was
printed in colours on satin in 1792. The name of the actual
printer of the pictures seldom appears on them. Mr. Salaman
only mentions one, H. Floquet, 1789. One Gamble, a self-
styled " Inventor of Printing in Colours," was carrying on
business in Pall Mall in 1784, but of what the alleged invention
consisted we cannot say.

Before proceeding to deal with other intaglio engravings
in colours, something may be said about the ** combination "
processes used late in the eighteenth century and early in the
nineteenth. The chiaroscuro-tinted etchings and mezzotints
have already been referred to, and mezzotinted or aquatinted

COLOUR PRINTING

etchings naturally come next on the list for notice. The object
of the engravers of these was apparently to produce from the
metal surface of a single plate, or at the most from two plates,
an effect similar to that for which the workers in chiaroscuro
had to use a set of wood blocks. This could be done in more
than one way ; the plate could be lightly mezzotinted all over,
or a " ground " that would take colour obtained by the use
of sand, or the dusting box, to give a grain or tone. In any
case the plate could be subsequently line-etched, and the
ground tint scraped away in parts to a greater or lesser degree,
as the nature of the design demanded, so that considerable
variations in strength of colour could be obtained from a
single plate, almost equal to those for which several wood
blocks had hitherto been required.

Early examples of two-colour mezzotints of this t3rpe,
dating from about the middle of the eighteenth century,
are the reproductions by C. Rugendas, of Augsburg (1708-
1781), of the spirited equestrian designs — mostly battle or
camp scenes — of his father, G. P. Rugendas ; in these, the
lightly mezzotinted plate conveying the detail, which was in
etched or engraved outline, was printed in black on a brown
ground applied from a second plate, which was left clean in
places in order to indicate the lights. It was, however, more
comimon to use only a single colour to print ground and outlines
together, the strong lines of the etching providing an effective
contrast to the tone of the ground, now dkrk, now light,
according to the extent to which it had been left polished
or scraped or grained, the parts dealt with in the former way,
of course, printing white.

Stefano Mulinari of Florence (1741-179-), engraved in this
style, producing his prints in brown, green, and other colours,
in imitation of drawings tinted in sepia or wash ; he seems
to have made considerable use of sand-grained or dust-ground
plates to produce his effects in contrasting shades and tints
of the same colour, and another Florentine engraver, A.
Scacciati (bom 1726) got his mainly by aquatinting his plates^

PRINTS WITH COLOURED GROUNDS

which were printed in various tones of brown or ochre, some
of them being surrounded with an etched frame or border,
also tinted, after the style of Kirkall. Both of these engravers
followed the usual practice of copying the designs of the Old
Masters. A collection of prints published in 1762 contains
many examples of work of this kind by Scacciati ; amongst
them may be mentioned " The Last Supper," after Eschauer,
in brown line and tone, and the " Ascension of the Blessed
Virgin Mary," after the picture by Salvator Rosa in the
Florence Gallery, which is printed in green, and is much in
the style of some of Le Sueur's chiaroscuro-tinted etchings in
the Crozat series.

Bartolozzi did some prints for this collection, and the
manner is seen reflected in some of his earlier EngUsh work,
such, for instance, as the series of classical subjects he engraved
in 1777 after Cipriani's designs, including *' Minerva Visiting
the Muses," " Vulcan and Venus," etc. These are line
engravings, tinted in reddish-brown to deepen the shadows ;
some wash-drawings by Guercino were also imitated by Barto-
lozzi in similar fashion. Ryland produced many etchings
with coloured grounds, good examples of which may be seen»
as well as some by Bartolozzi and J. Basire, in Rogers'
Collection of Prints already referred to. Several of these
are in two or three shades of the same colour, usually brown
or ochre. There are also a few by S. Watts, dated 1777,
including " The Crucifixion," after Tintoretto, with a yellow
" sand-grain " ground, on which the etching is printed in
brown. A still more extensive collection of tinted etchings
is R. Earlom's reproduction of the Liber Veritatis of Claude
de Lorraine, published by Boydell in 1777, but as all
the designs are uniformly printed in the same brown tone,
they do not call for detailed notice here. The method survived
until a later period, some engravings of classical subjects by
N. X. WiUemin (1763-1839) being printed in black on a soUd
background of vermilion ; the actual engraving had a back-
ground of its own, which was cut away in those parts where

97
7— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

the figures — ^very lightly engraved in outline— occurred.
A very strong and crude contrast of Ught and shade was
thus produced, of the character now sometimes termed
" Rembrandtesque."

We come now to the latest of all the intagho engraving
processes which do not depend upon photography, i,e.. Aqua-
tint. Although this method is often called '* engraving," it
is really etching by tones, for all the graving is done by acid,
and thus there are, or need be, no lines, although these may be
etched in. The plate is partially protected by specks of resin,
and between these specks the acid bites, giving the plate an
ink-holding capacity. Owing to the fineness of the grain,
which varies according to the proportion of the resin and
alcohol, a proof from an aquatint plate appears to the eye
like a wash-drawing. The various tones are obtained by
" stopping out," as in etching, i.e., a fine grain is obtained
by a single biting, after which the part intended to be left
so is covered with a protecting coat of varnish, and the plate
put in the acid again to obtain a deeper tone for the rest.
The natural tendency of aquatint is to render the subject in
flat tones, but these can, to some extent, be modified during
the biting, and afterwards with the burnisher.

There are many ways of producing the aquatint ground,
the two most important being the resinous dust ground and
the spirit ground, the former containing the " ground " medium
in powder, and the latter having it in solution, the liquid being
afterwards got rid of by evaporation, leaving the specks of resin
behind. The above is the process for preparing a plate for
printing in a single colour, which is not necessarily black,
aquatints in red, sage-green, brown, etc., being quite common.
When more than one colour was required, the French aqua-
tinters in most cases prepared a separate plate for each, which
had only that part of the design etched upon it that was in-
tended to be printed in a particular colour. Some designs, how-
ever, were of such a nature as to permit of two or more colours
being printed at once from a single plate, the parts intended

THE BIRTH OF AQUATINT

to carry the different tints being sufficiently distant from each
other to allow of the various coloured inks being rubbed into
them without any chance of their '* running " together.
Where separate plates were used, an extra plain one was
commonly placed on the bed of the press, carrying a pin at
each comer. The colour plates had corresponding holes at
the comers, in which the pins fitted, so as to ensure that each
plate feU exactly into the same position as the preceding one
during the operation of printing. Sometimes all the colours
were put on a single plate i la poupie, inks of a very thick
consistency being used. In this case, the plates had to be
carefully wiped in the usual way after the application of each
colour, a thorough general wipe being given when they were all
on. Aquatints printed in two or three shades are fairly common,
but most of the elaborately tinted pictures said to have been
aquatinted in colours show, on close examination, that the
original printed tints have been supplemented by hand-work.

The invention of aquatint — ^which means water-colour, but
had, in its inception, nothing to do with colour proper — ^is
now generally ascribed to Jean Baptiste Le Prince, a French
painter and engraver. Bom at Metz in 1733, he studied art
there, and subsequently went to Paris, in which city, after a
residence of some years in Russia, he ultimately settled down,
becoming a member of the Academy in 1765 ; he died in 1781.
It has been stated that he derived his knowledge of the process
from the Abb6 Richard de Saint Non, a French author and
amateur engraver, who certainly practised etching in aquatint,
although it is unlikely that he was the actual inventor. Le
Prince, in return for a pension of 1,200 livres, disclosed his
method to the Acad6nie de Peinture, in a MS. which they
kept till 1788, when it was published in the Encyclopidie
Mtthodique. Fifteen years before this, one Stapart had pub-
lished at Paris a treatise on LArt de Graver au Pinceau,
described as a new method. A German translation of it by
Harempter appeared at Nuremberg in 1780.

The date of the first adaptation of the aquatint method

COLOUR PRINTING

to colour printing is uncertain, but would seem to be at least
as early as 1768. At that time there was living at Amsterdam
an ex-merchant, J. C. Ploos van Amstel (1726-98), who had
turned amateur engraver and print collector. He amused
himself by producing some aquatints in colour, and considered
his work in this direction to be of such importance as to warrant
him giving a public demonstration of his methods, in order
to dispel any doubts which may have existed as to the precise
nature thereof. This took place in October, 1768, in the pres-
ence of the Burgomaster of Amsterdam, that worthy subse-
quently publishing a testimony to the genuineness of Amstel's
claims to be a producer, by a new method, of " prints in oil
colours, with the aid of ground varnishes, powder, and liquids."
This vague description does not help to an understanding
of what Amstel actually did, nor do such of his productions
as the writer has seen. He styled himself an " inventor "
in a plate published in February, 1765, dedicated to John
Witsen ; a line engraving of a monumental stele, printed in
dark brown on a light brown ground, with the lights engraved
out, not unlike some of the old prints in chiaroscuro. He seems
to have produced a fairly large number of aquatints in imitation
of wash-drawings, but apart from the variation in grey or neu-
tral tones produced by the use of grounds of different d^;rees
of fineness, there is not much that can be dignified with the
name of colour printing, though there is a good deal of hand-
colouring on some of his pictures, many of which have a
sand or dust grain in addition ; some of them resemble the
crayon-stipple or mezzotinted-etching t3^pes of tone prints.
Between 1764 and 1787 Amstel reproduced forty-six pictures
by Dutch masters, printing about 350 copies of each, and
endeavoured to keep his process secret, even his apprentice
being bound over in a sum of 3,000 florins not to divulge any
of the details, though this arrangement speedily proved
unworkable, like most of its kind.

In 1821 a Collection d'imitations of drawings aquatinted by
Amstel was published in London by C. Josi, a relative of the

100

PLOOS VAN AMSTEL, COLOUR AQUATINTER

engraver, who had intended bringing it out long before, but
was prevented by the disturbed state of Europe and the
consequent lack of interest in costly publishing enterprises.
This is a splendid work, but it cannot be said that an examina-
tion of it tends to dispel the mystery which seems to envelop
Amstel's method even to this day. Most of the illustrations
are printed in shades of brown or sepia, or in the crayon style,
but there are several fine prints in colours, including the first
four, after pictures by A. Van Ostade ; these have some
resemblance to the work of Debucourt or Janinet, but con-
sidered as colour prints they are better productions than
the French ones. There is more than a suspicion of mezzo-
tinting about some of them, as well as of stippling, but whilst
it is tolerably certain that most of the colouring was printed,
it is almost as certain that some was applied by hand ; it
seems likely, too, that the coloured grounds were laid down
on the paper before most of the detail — ^in black — was printed.
The imitations of some drawings by Rembrandt, in brown
and sepia, are undoubtedly press-coloured, as well as a few
of those that immediately follow. The large plate after
Lucas van Leyden, in brown, suggests a line etching, supple-
mented by aquatinted tones. Among other things, Amstel
reproduced the original design for Bloemaert's chiaroscuro
of the " Virgin and Infant Christ," which was referred to
in the previous chapter ; this was printed in brown, with the
lights in white. There is also a woman's head, after Goltz, in
red and black in the crayon stipple manner, apparently from
two plates.

Aquatinting was introduced into England through the
instrumentality of the Hon. Charles Greville, a member of
the Warwick family, who, during a visit to Paris, purchased
from Le Prince the details of his method, which on his return
to England about 1761 he communicated to his friend Paul
Sandby, the engraver (1725-1809), who seems to have modified
and improved it. The earlier English aquatints, however,
are generally monochromes, brown or bistre being the most

101

COLOUR PRINTING

usual colour, as in Sandby's *' Views of Windsor Castle,"
1776. It was not until the days of F. C. Lewis, some thirty
years later, that English colour aquatints b^an to make
their appearance ; we have therefore to fall back upon French
work as furnishing the earhest and best exposition of aqua-
tinting in colours. Louis Bonnet, who has been referred to
in connection with coloured crayon stipple work, also tried
his hand at aquatint, and with a good share of success, an
excellent example being his engraving after J. B. Huet's
" Silence of Venus," in which five colours seem to have been
used, viz. : red, flesh, grey, hght brown and blue.

The most able French exponent of the art of aquatinting
in colours was P. L. Debucourt (1755-1832), who held the post
of painter to that unfortunate monarch, Louis XVI. He
was the actual designer, as well as etcher, of most of his own
prints, in contradistinction to his French contemporaries and
successors, who chiefly contented themselves with engraving
after other artists. The years immediately preceding the
Revolution were those in which Debucourt produced some of
his best work in this hne, and he satirised the follies and
fashions of the time, without any of the coarseness and exag-
geration of Rowlandson. His " Promenade in the Gallery
of the Palais Royal," which was priced at 300 livres as early
as 1787, is quite inimitable in the way it depicts the fashion-
able life of the French capital, a couple of years before the
great upheaval. There, " all unconscious of their fate," we
see the " victims play," though even then they were walking
on the brink of a precipice, over which the irresistible force
of democracy was soon to hurl them ; quite apart from its
merits as a faithful picture of life and manners, this print is
a fine specimen of that form of colour work which has made
its engraver famous. About five or six moderately bright
colours were used, each being printed from a separate plate ;
most of the detail of the picture was, however, etched on one
plate only, the function of the others being chiefly to colour
the impression from this key plate. Like aU the workers in this

102

ALIX AND JANINET, COLOUR AQUATINTERS

department of colour printing, Debucourt used very fine
" grounds," with here and there a suggestion of mezzotinting.
In fact some of these colour aquatints give one the impression
of a mezzotint " watered " down ; even the most trifling details,
such as the coloured pattern of a dress, are printed, so that
if the colour plates were really aquatinted, and not engraved,
Debucourt must have been a veritable master of that art.
His " New Year's Day " (1787), and " A Visit to Grandma "
(1788), ovals, are pictures of a different t5T)e from the fashion
series, the spandrels or spaces at the angles of the square
plate being filled in with an imitation of the markings of
bluish-veined marble, a style which Alix also affected, as
may be seen in his print of " Fortune." The colours used
are brown, blue, black, grey and flesh. In a series of prints
illustrating Russian peasant life, " The Droschki," etc.,
the colours seem to have been printed together at a single
impression from only one plate. Another and later series,
after Carl Vemet, is hand-coloured.

P. M. Alix (1752-1817), who was a contemporary of Debu-
court, and a neat, clean, colourist, has left much good work
of this character behind him, including a portrait of Charlotte
Corday, the assassin of Marat, in which even the blue in the
eyes is printed. He made a speciality of portraiture, and
excelled in it more than in the accessory details which made
up some of his pictures. In the portrait said to be that of
M. Malesherbes, (the defender of Louis XVI), for instance,
whilst the face is well done, the leaves on the trees are like
bunches of bananas. Among his other prints is a large view
of Old Westminster Bridge, published at Paris in 1799.

The multi-colour French aquatint is perhaps seen at its
best in the productions of J. F. Janinet (1752-1813). It is
curious that aU these masters of colour aquatinting should
have been bom within a year or so of each other, and that
they should aU have survived the terrors of the Revolution
and the quarter-of-a-century of incessant war which followed.
In his print of " The Operation," Janinet described himself

103

COLOUR PRINTING

as the first aquatinter in colours, and the only person who
was able to engrave in imitation of wash-drawings, whence
the French term for the process, au maniere lavis. To some
extent he copied Bonnet's style, by producing some black
and tint crayon-stipple prints, such as the pair representing
" Le Berger Couronn6 " and " La Bergere Couronn6," but
it is by his colour aquatints that he is best known to-day.
One of his masterpieces in this direction is the portrait of
Marie Antoinette, who is represented in all the regal splendour
which was soon to be torn from her ; this is a beautiful piece
of colour work, bordered with a frame of cartouche t)rpe
printed in gold, and ornamented with wreaths and festoons
of flowers, the blue-veined marble ornament appearing here
also, the tablet with the inscription being in brown. For a
short time in 1784 Janinet was bitten with the craze of balloon-
ing, which was just as novel then as aviation is now, but as
his much advertised experiments only resulted in ridicule,
he returned to his studio again. From some of his prints
we learn the names of those who printed them ; Blin, Chapuis,
J. C. Sergent fils (on the "Child with Dog" print), etc.
One of Janinet's best " fancy " subjects is " The Three
Graces," after Pellegrini. About 1873 a portfolio of proofs
of his colour aquatints was discovered in Alsace, the prints
in which were dispersed at long prices.

Next comes Charles M. Descourtis (1753-1820), a pupil
of Janinet, and a fine colourist, though not remarkable as a
draughtsman or designer. His " L'Amant Surpris," after
Schall, is a really good piece of colour printing, and the same
may be said of the series of prints, also after Schall, illustrating
scenes from " Paul et Virginie," a work then in the zenith
of its popularity ; five or six colour plates were used to produce
these. Some of the aquatinters in colour were probably
indebted for the grain of their tone plates to the roulette,
invented about 1762 by F. P. Charpentier, of Blois, for the
purpose of putting in gradations of light and shade on an
etched plate. Prints produced by this means were, however,

104

ENGLISH AQUATINTS IN COLOUR

usually termed " Aquarelles," a title which reappeared in
France nearly a century later in connection with reproductions
of water-colours. Speaking generally, the three primary
colours, red, blue and yellow, were used in combination with
a black key plate to produce the French colour aquatints
of the late eighteenth century, so that Le Blon's method
had been adapted from the old mezzotinting to the new
etching process.

The best period in the production of French colour aquatints
had practically ended before the English one began ; but
there was no comparison between the two countries in this
respect, hardly any aquatints being printed in England in
more than two colours, and not many with even that meagre
number. A few designs by Adam Buck were reproduced in
aquatint, and issued in colours in a style somewhat resembling
that of the French prints. Several were published by William
Holland, and amongst them may be mentioned " Tambourina,"
a reclining female with a tambourine, engraved by Wright
& Ziegler in 1799, in which there is a flesh tint and two or
three tones of brown. " Vespers " (1802), by Piatt & Lewis,
is a four-colour print of a rather different style, in which
red, blue, and flesh pink appear as printed colours, besides
the usual greyish-brown tone. A pair of earlier prints,
engraved by F. Jukes after W. Williams, " Courtship " and
*' Matrimony " (1787), were also issued in colours.

Perhaps the first, and certainly one of the best series of
English productions of this kind, is Dr. Thornton's Temple
of Flora, as it was first announced in 1799, or New Illus-
troHon of the Sexual System, as it was termed when it appeared
in 1807, dedicated to Queen Charlotte, but shorn of some
of its intended glory, owing to the general depression of pub-
lishing enterprises caused by the war. It is a fine volume,
indeed one of the finest botanical works of any period, and all
the plates are provided with artistic and carefully engraved
backgrounds, hills, trees, rivers, etc., which are excellent exam-
ples of aquatinting, occasionally fortified by a little stipphng

105

COLOUR PRINTING

or line engraving. In a few cases, such as *' The Nodding
Reneabnia," three printed colours appear, but the English
fashion of working from a single plate was mostly followed,
not the French one of having a separate plate for each colour.
The most conmion printed tints are green and blue, the latter
being the sky colour and generally that of the hills. Red
occurs as a printed colour here and there, one of the finest
examples being the plate of the " Flowering Sensitive Plant,"
but in this case more than one plate must have been used,
as the long red tendrils stand out in perceptible relief, clear
of each other, and could not have been inked on the same
plate as the printed backgroimd against which they are repre-
sented ; it is curious, however, that the other red on the print
should have been put in by hand.

The hand-coloured aquatint, as an ordinary book illustra-
tion, was in great favour during the first quarter of the nine-
teenth century, especiaUy in the works published by Ackermann,
who, although he showed decided leanings towards lithography
at first, ultimately hit upon aquatint as a means of interpreting
the designs of the numerous artists who drew for his books.
This is a phase of illustrative art with which we are not con-
cerned here, but long lists of books containing hand-coloured
aquatints will be found in Hardie's English Coloured Books
and Miss Prideaux's Aquatini Engraving.

The press-coloured aquatint made its appearance much
more rarely in books, being more common in the form of
separate prints, but in either case the usual practice was to
etch the plates in broad masses of light and shade, avoiding
much minute detail, and then to ink them in two colours,
generally sepia and green or brown, so that each print could
be produced at a single impression. Examples occur in some
views of Indian scenery, published by the Daniells in 1812 ;
in a series of views of the Lake District, after T. Fielding,
published by T. McLean in 1822, and in G. F. Phillips' Practical
Treatise on Drawing, 1839.

These were on a small scale, but among the more expensively

106

MORE COLOURED AQUATINTS

produced subscription volumes perhaps the finest display
of aquatinting in colour, though not in multi-colour, is seen
in W. Y. Ottley's Collection of Facsimiles of Drawings by
Old Masters (1827), one of many similar works brought out
about this period, some of which have already been men-
tioned. Most of the prints in this volume were aquatinted
by F. C. Lewis (1779-1856), a pupil of J. C. Stadler, who himself
occasionally aquatinted for colour work. The " Collection "
contains aquatints printed in red, brown, yellow and grey,
in fact, in all the tints usually affected for this class of print.
In one case, perhaps as fine as any, a study of trees after Claude
is printed in green ; " The Finding of the Cross," after S.
Pagani, the largest picture in the book, is in brown. There
are a few line etchings on tinted grounds or in the crayon
manner, and two or three others in which the shadows are
chiefly represented by cross-hatched line work, put in so
strongly as to produce a distinct impression on the back of
the print. Somewhat similar work is seen in some engravings
by A. Rancati, of Rome, published at Milan about this time,
Michael Angelo's " Esaias," for example ; here also the shad-
ing is put in by cross-hatched work, of a different t)^ from
that of Lewis, and printed over two ground tints, a light and
a dark brown, the lights being scraped out,

J. T. Prestel (1738-1818), a German artist, did a few aqua-
tints in this style ; among them is a copy of one of Raphael's
studies for his " School at Athens," dated 1785, an etching,
printed on a yellowish-brown dust ground with the lights
scraped out ; and an etched reproduction of Ligozze's " Truth's
Triumph over Envy," also printed on a brown ground, and
tinted in two darker shades of brown, but the lights are indi-
cated by an impression from a third block, which was printed in
gold, an idea perhaps suggested by some early sixteenth century
prints of Cranach and J. de Necker, referred to in Chapter II.
A " Magdalene," after Correggio, was printed by Prestel in three
shades of sepia, and colouring of a similar nature is seen in a
large spirit-ground aquatint of St. Gallen's Tower of Frankfort.

107

COLOUR PRINTING

Prestei's best work in colour aquatint is seen in his collection
of facsimiles of " Dessins des Meilleurs Peintres," from the col-
lection of G. J. Schmidt at Hamburg (1779). All these are
engraved the full size of the originals, and though many are
in outline or in sepia tints, several are in two or three colours.
There is very little of the dust ground in these prints, the
characteristic spirit-ground grain being recognisable almost
throughout ; many of the pictures, except for the presence
of this, would give one the impression that they are printed
from wood blocks, so close is the resemblance to the old
chiaroscuro work, and some of them, with the high lights
represented by uncoloured white spaces, strongly suggest
the style and colouring of Le Sueur, as seen in the Crozat
collection. Green and sepia, or green and black, are favourite
combinations, as also are brown, or red, and black, one example
being in two shades of brown, two of green, and a bistre tint
in addition, and a few in red and black stipple, in the crayon
manner. This is a volume which should be compared with the
Ottley collection of half-a-century later, previously mentioned.

The series of 100 illustrations to Hugford's Life of A. D.
Gabbiani, the Florentine painter, published at Florence in
1762, are sometimes referred to as early examples of the use
of aquatint in colour work. They are, however, more of the
character of the mezzotinted etchings already alluded to,
although the tones may have been produced by dust grounds.
Many of the plates are by Scacciati, and some by Cipriani ;
Bartolozzi also helped. There are several line engravings
printed in red, and a number of prints in the style usually
affected by Scacciati, i.e., etchings on a coloured ground,
red, brown, yellow or greenish-grey. This collection, like
Prestei's — though it is not, as is the latter, a one-man produc-
tion — ^may be advantageously contrasted with a British one
published fifty years after, viz. : J. Chamberlaine's series of
facsimiles of " Original Designs " in the collection of George
III (1812). This has numerous examples of aquatints in
colour, though mostly only a single shade, which is usually

lOd

THE POLYGRAPHIC PROCESS

red or brown. Some of the imitations of Caracci's designs,
by W. Tomkins, are particularly good specimens of this class
of work, as are also one or two after Claude, by F. C. Lewis, and
some stipples by Bartolozzi after L. da Vinci, printed in red.

The decay of aquatint, as a book illustrative method, may
almost be dated from the death, in 1834, of Rudolf Ackermann,
who, by so extensively using it for his publications, had done
much to keep it alive. It was succeeded by an era of etching,
in which G. Cruikshank, Se3anour, Buss, H. K. Browne and
others loomed largely, so that by the middle of the last century
aquatinting was almost laid aside.

Towards the close of the eighteenth century, what appears
to have been a mechanical method of copying pictures in oil
colours was invented by an artist named Joseph Booth, or
possibly by Francis Eginton (1737-1805), but no reliable
details of it have come to light. It was introduced in 1784,
under the formidable name of " Pollaplasiasmos," which,
two or three years later, was changed to " Polygraphy," and
a Polygraphic Society was formed, that had its headquarters
in PaU Mall, and held annual exhibitions of " Polygraphics,"
as these multi-colour reproductions were termed. The
Society purchased a number of valuable original oil paintings
for copying purposes, including a seaport view by Claude,
costing 400 guineas, the Polygraphic copies of which measured
48 X 61 inches framed, and cost twenty guineas each. In most
cases, however, " Polygraphics " were much cheaper than
this ; a hundred copies were made of a picture of " Jupiter
and Europa " at three guineas each, and two and a half guineas
seems to have been the minimum. The prints appear to
have been furnished to the Society by Matthew Boulton, of
the well-known Soho engineering firm, who is alleged to have
dabbled in photography about this time. There is some
evidence that " Polygraphics " were alternatively termed
" Sun-Pictures," a term which Fox Talbot made use of sixty
years later, but on the other hand Boulton spoke of the process
as " printing " or " taking impressions," although Booth

109

COLOUR PRINTING

referred to it as a " chymical and mechanical " method.
The details are, however, "wropt in mystery," though
such as have survived suggest that many of the existing
anon3anous copies of old masters may be Polygraphics.
Mr. Goddard, the principal man in the Society, died in 1794,
the stock of original pictures and polygraphed copies being
subsequently sold off and the concern wound up. In the
absence of an authenticated Polygraphic it would be useless to
speculate on the precise nature of the process. Those who
are interested will, however, find it discussed at great length,
though rather fruitlessly, in the Journal of the Photographic
Society for November 16th, 1863, and January 15th, 1864.

Of letterpress or typographic printing in colours, not very
much seems to have been done during the eighteenth century ;
work in red and black, other than on title-pages, was almost
entirely confined to the service books of the Roman Church,
and a large proportion of even these were printed in black only,
though such establishments as the Plantin Press still produced
creditable examples on the old lines. In the middle of the
century, several editions were got out at Paris of a work
entitled Le Livre d la Mode, a satirical description of the
manners of the time. It was a 12mo volume, of which two
editions were published in 1759, one printed wholly in red,
the other in yellow. In 1760 there was another red edition,
and then the work, which was in four sections, was re-issued
with the title of Le Livre de Quatre Couleurs, the sections being
respectively printed with green, yellow, red and brown ink.
On the title-page lettering in all these colours appears, in
addition to a vignette printed in black. In 1790, the year
following the Revolution, the idea was revived by the publica-
tion of Le Livre Rouge, which contained a list of the secret pen-
sions paid out of the French Treasury before the trouble came
to a head, with rather " free " explanations why they were
granted. As the title implies, this was printed wholly in red,
and editions produced in similar style were issued the same
year in London and in DubUn, the printer of the latter being

110

BLAKE'S COLOUR ETCHINGS

probably M. Williamson, of Grafton Street, who seems also to
have produced some books in green ink about this period,
perhaps as a compliment to the Irish. The writer has found
a reference to an edition of John Wilkes' Essay on Woman,
printed in red in 1772, but has not seen it. In a tiny volume
published at Paris in 1801, with the title of Almanack des
Quatre Couleurs, the frontispiece and four other copperplate
engravings were printed in blue, and .the text in red, green,
bistre and blue. G. de Boze's Livre Jaune ( 1748) and an edition
of Abelard et HiUnse, published at Paris in 1834, may be
mentioned in passing as examples of the use of coloured papers
in place of coloured inks, the last named having four shades.

A more than usually interesting example of typography
in red and black is the edition of Justinian's InsHttUes printed
at Paris in 1805, "«* oficina stereofypa Herhan/' this being
perhaps the first occasion on which the art of stereot3^ing,
then newly re-introduced, was utilised for the production of
a book in two colours. It is in a small neat roman letter,
and beautiful register is maintained throughout.

The weird publications of William Blake, the Lambeth
printer-engraver-poet, may be included under the head
of letterpress printing in colour, inasmuch as, like those of
the old Block Books, each page of Blake's various volumes
of poems was engraved, text and illustration together.
Though the point will probably alwa)^ remain in doubt, the
press-colouring in Blake's books is most likely limited to that
in which the text is printed, as seen in The Book of Tkel and
Tke Songs of Innocence (1789) ; America, a Propkecy (1793),
usually produced in dark green ; Europe, a Propkecy ( 1794) ,
in olive-green ; Tke First Book of Urizen, Tke Song of Los
and Tke Songs of Experience (1794), all printed in shades of
brown. Some of these are in monochrome without any
retouching by hand, but in others the original printed colour
has been greatly added to by brushwork. In Tke Visions
of tke Daugkters of Albion (1793), this is in thin water-colour,
but in Tke Book of Los it is rather in the natiu'e of thick oil

111

COLOUR PRINTING

paint, applied over all the outline illustrations, and also in
smeary patches at the sides of, or across the text, much in the
same style as one would expect a child, in possession of a box
of paints, to spoil a book, and tending to strengthen the idea
that Blake was mentally afflicted. In the folio volume of
reproductions of his works, published in 1876, the text and
illustrations can be studied in monotint, as originally engraved
and printed, but as the printers and colourists were Blake
and his wife, nearly every copy exhibits points of difference.
The plates used were, like the engraver himself, of a decidedly
original character. In place of writing and drawing his text
and illustrations in ink, Blake used an acid-resisting compo-
sition, with which he wrote and drew on the surface of the
copper ; then, when the designs were dry, aquafortis was
poured over the plate, the surface of which, save where the
lettering and pictures protected it, was eaten away. Thus
Blake's plates were surface-printing etchings. It is as a designer
of emblematic subjects that this remarkable artist is best
known, and in that particular line it would be difficult to
name his equal.

So much space having already been devoted to colour print-
ing from wood blocks, an art that will have to be referred
to again in the succeeding chapter, something may fittingly
be said at this point about the Japanese colour prints, which,
like the European, were printed from wood blocks, and, like
them also, were the result of a development from hand-colour-
ing. The art of engraving on wood, though doubtless of great
antiquity in both China and Japan, did not attain its best
period until late in the seventeenth century, when book
illustrations along the so-called popular lines began to be
introduced by the two Matabei, of whom the elder died in
1650, and their follower Moronobu (died 1714). Their work
was in black and white, but hand-tinting in red became common
early in the eighteenth century, and the next step, i.e., to print-
ing in colours, was first taken under the auspices of the fol-
lowers of Torii Kiyonobu, who died in 1729 ; these including

112

JAPANESE COLOUR PRINTS

N. Shijenaga (1697-1756), who was the master of S. Harunobu,
perhaps the first of the great Japanese producers of colour
prints. He worked between 1764 and 1772, and, like Ryland in
England, his style was immediately followed by quite a host of
imitators, amongst whom may be singled out Utamaro, who
carried on the succession from 1772 to 1789. His prints first
gave rise to the craze for collecting these charming examples of
colour work that has subsisted almost ever since. Tokoyuni
(1769-1825) came next, and raised the art of colour printing in
Japan to its highest level. For the greater part of his life he was
contemporary with Hokusai (1760-1849), who, as a book
illustrator as well as a producer of separate prints, stands
unrivalled in Japanese annals ; most of his prints were in
three or four colours, as was then usual in Japan, but in his
books, such as the famous Mangwa, a sort of pictorial ency-
clopaedia of Japanese life and manners, black and red alone
were used.

This colour printing, most of which was done at Yeddo,
was quite imique of its kind ; the design, being drawn on thin
paper, was pasted face down on a block of pear wood, which
was then engraved to serve as a key block, and from proofs
of this the series of colour blocks was engraved. The actual
printing was essentially a hand process, as no press was used,
the paper being laid on the face of the inked block, and rubbed
to transfer the impression. There was a sort of rudimentary
point system in use, to secure accurate register. Tokoyuni's
pupils, Kunisada and Kuniyoshi, carried on the work, along
with a crowd of lesser artists, until the fifties, after which a
period of decadence set in, more colour blocks being used,
and imported colours of a rather gaudy character. By 1870
the old school of artists who worked for printing in colour
was almost extinct, and the introduction of modem and
Western ideas, which followed the regeneration of Japan in
1868, was responsible for quite a different class of work, which
retained little of the genuine spirit of the old. Wood block
colour prints — of a kind — are still produced in Japan, though

113

8^(2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

but few care to collect them. The modem Japanese disciple
of the graphic arts is rather fonder of something absolutely
new, like collotype, hand-coloured examples of which process
are quite common in Japan to-day. Even where an attempt
is made to reproduce in some slight measure the old style,
modernity is well to the fore, as in the series of little volumes
published at Tokio a few years back under the title of Japanese
Fairy Tales. These were printed on " crfepe " paper, quite a
different material to the native article, and the black outlines
of the pictures were crudely coloured, though probably from
wood blocks, in flat masses, quite removed from the fine
distinctive tinting of the prints of the old school. Coloured
drawings by Japanese artists, on native lines, have occasionally
been reproduced by up-to-date European methods, as in
F. V. Dickins' translation of the Japanese romance, "Chushing-
ura " (London, 1880), which includes some photo-litho repro-
ductions, by Griggs, of Japanese coloured pictures. A publica-
tion which had a share of popularity a few years ago, AtHstic
Japan, contained many modem-antique Japanese prints in
colour.

114

CHAPTER V

COLOUR PRINTING IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Chromo-xylography. Part I

SAVAGE AND HIS " DECORATIVE PRINTING " — BAXTER, HIS
LICENSEES, AND HIS RIVALS— THE CHISWICK PRESS

HE first quarter of the nineteenth century
witnessed the revival, in a new form,
of the old chiaroscuro process, and
also the introduction of an entirely
fresh colour printing method, viz. :
chromo-tithography.

We will deal with the former first, in
this and the succeeding chapter. Like
Teyler's, it is only known at the start through the medium of
a single work, but whereas Teyler's career is veiled in almost
total obscurity, the name of William Savage is known to many
who have perhaps never seen his book on colour printing,
as he was the author of some other and better known works
coimected with the trade.

Savage was a Yorkshireman, bom at Howden in 1770, and
twenty years later was in partnership there with his brother
James as a bookseller and stationer. In 1797 he went to
London, and a couple of years afterwards was appointed to
take charge of the printing department of the Royal Institu-
tion. Having in this post plenty of spare time on his hands,
he, in 1803, started a printii^ business on his own account,
and was thus enabled to devote some of his leisure to experi-
mental work in connection with the trade. His attention
was speciaUy directed to the want of coloured inks, which, a
century ago, were scarcely to be had in England, and he set
to work to remedy this deficiency. In contradistinction to
Baxter's practice a quarter of a century later. Savage's ideal
115

COLOUR PRINTING

ink for colour printing was one which did not contain oil,
he using balsam capivi and dried turpentine soap instead.
Having succeeded in this direction, he hit on the idea of
publishing a book, which should exhibit the application of
his new coloured inks to letterpress work of a pictorial and
decorative character, of a kind which had not hitherto been seen
in England. On the cover of the Gentleman's Magazine for
August, 1815, there appeared a sort of prospectus advertisement
of the proposed book, which was to have the appropriate title
of Decorative Printing, and be published by subscription, as
was usual with any expensive work at that time, the price
of a large paper copy being ten guineas, and of a small paper
one, five guineas. Savage guaranteed that no second edition
of the work should appear, as all the blocks were to be de-
stroyed, which operation his subscribers could see him perform
if they liked. His proposals for thus creating an artificial
scarcity of the book were severely condemned by several
writers in subsequent numbers of the Gentleman's Magazine ;
however, he got enough subscriptions (there are 227 names
in the list) to justify him in proceeding with the enterprise, and
accordingly obtained drawings, selected the subjects for the
pictures, and had most of the engraving work done by well-
known practitioners in that line. The illustrations to the book
were to be mostly in colours, and all were to be printed from
wood blocks, but some in bright tints instead of the neutral
shades affected by the old school of chiaroscurists. The engra-
vers whom he employed for the colour blocks (there are also
several ordinary black-and-white illustrations) were very
sceptical of the possibiUty of reproducing coloured drawings by
the method Savage proposed, and as business in the wood en-
graving line was brisk just then, the progress of Savage's book
was greatly retarded in various ways, not the least of which
arose from the fact that he resolved to print nearly all the
colour work himself, on an iron hand-press of the " Ruthven "
type, then recently introduced by a person of that name in
Edinburgh. What with one delay and another, three years

116

SAVAGE'S "DECORATIVE PRINTING"

passed away, and Savage was constantly bombarded with
enquiries from his subscribers as to when the book was going
to appear ; in order to keep them quiet, he promised publica-
tion in November, 1818, but found it impossible to get the
work finished by that time, so decided to issue what he had
ready, and make it Part I. This contains a plate of Lord
Spencer's Arms, and pages 1-52 of the text, with eight colour
prints, four tinted head-pieces, six specimen sheets of his
coloured inks, and two pages of t3^es ; the list of these, and also
of what was intended to be included in Part II, appeared on a
separate leaf, under a prefatory note by Savage, dated Novem-
ber 25th, 1818. Copies of this leaf — which was cancelled when
the complete volume was bound — and also of Part I in its
original condition, are very rare, as the division between the
two parts occurred in the middle of a chapter, and there was
thus no obvious break in the finished work ; the writer has a
separate Part I, the British Museum a separate Part II. Savage
promised that this latter should appear before the end of 1818,
but the work dragged on and on, until, in the Spring of 1820,
he disposed of his interest in the work to " a gentleman well
known in the literary world." His advent, however, did not
help matters much, as another three years elapsed before the
book was finished, the " Address " being dated March 25th,
1823, more than seven and a half years after the issue of the
prospectus.

It is to be feared that the recipients of copies of Practical
Hints on Decorative Printing were somewhat dubious as to
having got their money's worth, as apart from the coloured
plates it is a rambling work of not much interest, except
from a technical point of view. The second and concluding
Part contained a dozen coloured pictures, there being thus
some twenty in aU, half of them coloured by tints of the
old dull chiaroscuro character. Most of these, however, are
pure chiaroscuros, without any outline woodcut, the picture
being built up from the tone blocks alone. The multi-colour
prints, including the title — a rather neat piece of work —

117

COLOUR PRINTING

and Lord Spencer's Arms, of which only parts are in colour,
may be reckoned as a dozen altogether, but not more than
half that number are passable from an artistic standpoint.
One of them is a reproduction of a two-colour initial in the
Mentz Psalter of 1457, and is greatly superior in design to
the ugly grotesque rendering of the same letter (B) by
Branston, notwithstanding that the latter, like the title,
was partly printed in gold. The volume contains eighteen
samples of Savage's coloured inks, and it says much for the
care bestowed on their preparation that they remain bright
to this day, except the " orange lead," which has oxidised.
The prints in chiaroscuro were produced by from two to nine
blocks, but in only one case were the progressive stages of
the picture shown, i.e,, in the " Crossing Sweeper and Child "
(three blocks), of which there are five proofs, illustrating
various stages of development. The colour prints proper were
produced by impressions from two (the Heraldic title, an
engraved block printed on a coloured ground) up to as many
as twenty-^ine blocks; the design made up by these last
is the great feature of the book from a colour printer's point
of view, though it is anything but a handsome or even pleas-
ing picture. It illustrates Collins' " Ode to Mercy," and
as it is, perhaps, the most complicated job ever printed in
colours from wood blocks, it may be worth while to enu-
merate the tints employed, in the order in which they were
used, which is as follows : four sepias, yellow, puce, blue, red,
dark grey, yellow, light grey, light yellow, two reds, mauve,
light blue, two blue-gre}^, three shades of pale pink, green,
greyish-blue, light blue, a purplish red and a grey red (on
different parts of the same block), blue, a pale reddish-grey,
grey, and light brown, thirty in all. The original painting was
by W. H. Brooke, and the colom^ in it were analysed, and the
blocks engraved, by G. W. Bonner ; nineteen was the number
of the latter at first fixed upon, but others were found necessary
afterwards. Savage does not give a list of the colours in this
suite, *' for they are so blended together, that it would answer

118

SAVAGE'S METHODS AND AIMS

no purpose." Nor is it necessary to go into similar detail here
in regard to any other of the prints in Savage's book, as we are
fortunately provided with an easily accessible means of tracing
the progress of each picture through the press, from the first
block to the last. This information will be furnished by an
inspection of the remarkable copy of the work preserved in the
Library of the Patent Office, bound in two huge folio volumes ;
it was probably Savage's own copy (though there is no note
in it denoting ownership), and is printed on paper twice the
size of the " large paper " series ; these interesting volumes
contain a proof of every stage of every picture in the book,
pulled successively as the presswork progressed, but unfor-
tunately the order of many of the leaves has been disturbed
at some time or other, and they have recently been rebound
without having been properly collated. Thus the series of
twenty-six proofs in the " Tiger and Landscape " suite does
not run consecutively, although Savage had carefully numbered
each in pencil in the margin. In the " Ode to Mercy " print,
however, the complete series of fifty-five proofs remains in
its original order, so that the make-up of this tour de force
can be studied in all its details ; in each proof there are four
point holes, one in the middle of each side, but an inch or so
away from the printed surface. Each block was worked
through " the run " in turn, and the sheets kept damp until
they were wanted for the next block, and so on for the rest.
In landscape subjects, the sky tints were usually put in first,
as the composition then stood out more distinctly from the
background.

In producing his book. Savage's idea was to render his
" decorative " style of printing generally available, " so
that all classes might enjoy such works of art as were formerly
beyond their reach, and must ever have remained so as long
as the painter's hand and easel were the only means of pro-
duction." This sentence is quoted from a letter written at
the end of 1856 to the Daily News by one of Savage's daughters,
apropos of a puff of Baxter's colour prints which had appeared

119

COLOUR PRINTING

in that journal ; she pointed out that as her father had pro-
duced prints in colours long before Baxter, the latter could not
j ustly be called the inventor of the process. But the " inventor
and patentee of oil-colour-pictiu:e printing " (as he grandilo-
quently signed himself) would not hear of such a suggestion,
and in a long and pompous letter to the Daily News stated
his opinion that there was no originality whatever in Savage's
work, or any improvements on previous essays in the same
direction ; that he (G. B.) was the inventor of an entirely
original process ; Lord Brougham had said so, and from his
Lordship's dictum there could, of course, be no appeal.

Except for the use of the metal key plate, and the mixture
of oil with the colours, there was practically no difference
between Baxter's process and Savage's, but the latter never
attempted to make a conunercial success of the method,
whereas Baxter, being a persistent self-advertiser, got most
of the credit for work that had really been pioneered by others.

The personal satisfaction which Savage felt at the publica-
tion of his Decorative Printing probably formed his only
remuneration, seeing that he sunk his own profit in extra
colour blocks for it. In 1825 the Society of Arts, in recognition
of his work in the direction of producing imitations of coloured
drawings by printing from blocks, conferred upon him a silver
medal, and a cash premium of £15 15s. He wrote the Society
a long letter on January 19th, descriptive of his experiences
and his methods, and sent with it a few specimen colour
prints, evidently proofs of some in his Decorative Printing,
In 1832, Savage embodied the result of his experiments in
the manufacture of coloured printing inks in an octavo volume
entitled Preparations in Printing Ink in various Colours.
There was not much demand for coloiured inks at that time,
but that Savage was not the only worker in this field is proved
by the taking out of a patent the year after by one Leggett,
whose printing medium was a precipitate from a decoction
of logwood mixed with a solution of acetate of copper. This
did not itself supply the coloiu:, which was brought out in a

120

THE CONGREVE PROCESS

second working by a reagent, such as a solution of tartaric
add for yellow, bicarbonate of ammonia for blue, etc. From
the time when he first came to London, Savage had been
engaged in collecting material for an Encyclopaedia of the
printing trades, and the result of his forty years of labour
in this direction appeared in 1840-1, in the form of a thick
octavo volume with the title of Dictionary of the Art of Printing.
This was his last work, as he died at Kensington in 1843 ;
notwithstanding his long connection with the Royal Institution,
no memorial of him now remains there, save a copy of Decora-
tive Printing, but his daughter Alice was housekeeper there
for many years, and died as recently as 1903.

Savage's was not the only colour printing process with
which the Institution was associated. In the Technical
Library of the St. Bride Foundation is a specimen of " Rain-
bow Printing, executed in the Library of the Royal Institution
at the Soir6e on Wednesday, 17th April, 1844." This is a
rococo design in octavo size, and the colouring is of the character
usual to this method, running from blue to blue, via red,
orange and green, diagonally across the plate. The inscription
is in a central panel, in white on a blue ground. No name is
attached, but the process is, perhaps, that of Joseph Burch,
who took out several patents in connection with this class
of work between 1839 and 1845.

Before dealing with the work of Baxter, a few words may be
said about a process which, to some extent, constitutes a
connecting link between it and Savage's. In 1819-20, Sir
William Congreve (1772-1828), of rocket fame, took out
several patents in connection with the preparation of engraved
plates for printing the backgrounds of cheques, bank notes,
etc., in colours, to prevent forgery. There were " male "
and " female " dies or stamps, separately inked and combined
to form a single design, that consisted chiefly of the " filigree "
work (concentric circles, ovals, etc.) which to this day forms
the stock patterns for similar docimients ; many of the plates
were engraved for Congreve by Robert Branston, senior, of

121

COLOUR PRINTING

the firm of Whiting & Branston, Beaufort House, Strand,
who operated the process, which they acquired from Con-
greve in 1830. This firm subsequently split into two, James
Whiting remaining in the Strand, whilst Branston joined the
elder Vizetelly. The Government used the method to a con-
siderable extent, for the production of such things as the
coloured stamps on country bank notes; the ream labels
used by the Excise Department in connection with the paper
duty ; patent medicine labels, etc. In the hands of Messrs.
Whiting & Branston, however, the process was laiigely
devoted to what may be considered baser uses, i.e., to the
production of lottery bills and tickets. The public lottery
is still looked upon as a legitimate form of gain on the Con-
tinent, but in this country it was abolished in 1826. For
more than a century prior to that date it had, however, flour-
ished naked and unashamed, and the sale of tickets furnished
a number of firms of stockbrokers and others with a lucrative
occupation ; their trade announcements, which usually took
the form of handbills, were, as may be imagined, worded in
very seductive and persuasive terms, and — which is more to
our point — ^were frequently printed in colours. Two or three
firms seem to have made a speciaUty of turning out these
multi-coloured lottery bills, amongst whom Whiting &
Branston took a prominent place ; in most instances the plates
they used were engraved by the " rose-engine," and printed in
colours by Congreve's process. In one case, the design would
be printed in green, the lettering being in white, although
in one or two places some of it would be on a black ground,
or, in a central panel, on a red one, other designs being in
red and blue. The lottery brokers traded imder names
appropriate to their calling, such as Hazard & Co., Richardson,
Goodluck & Co., etc., and were apparently great believers
in the " drawing " power of colour, the announcement of
one firm taking the form of a nosegay, in which the flowers
are printed in red and black from woodcuts, whilst one designed
for Hazard represented a balloon, typifying the expanding

122

COLOURED LOTTERY BILLS

fortunes of the firm's clients. This was constructed of alter-
nate stripes of red and blue, the lettering, in white, being
partly on one colour, and partly on the other. In another
case (1825) a " Jack-in-the-Green " was illustrated, the black
woodcut being tinted in green from a second block. Gye
& Balne (the latter was the publisher of the New Testament
in gold, to be mentioned later on), of Gracechurch Street, went
in largely for the printing of these coloured lottery bills, one
they got out being entitled a New Valentine, representing a
plant in a pot, the stems and branches being printed in black,
and the leaves and the pot itself in red ; the pot stood for the
investor in a lottery ticket, and the plant — which bore leaves
labelled with the values of some of the great prizes — for the
result of the investment. In another of Gye's bills the lettering
was in red and black, and illustrated by a woodcut tinted
in parts with yellow. StiU another printing firm in this line
was Evans & Rufiy, of Budge Row ; they evidently used a
good deal of oil in their colours, the bills they produced often
being discoloured by it. After the abolition of public lotteries,
Branston^'s firm used the Congreve filigree designs for a very
different purpose, an example of which may be seen in the
Drawing Roam Scrap Sheet, issued in weekly parts, each of
two quarto leaves, by Ackermann, in 1831. Twenty-six of
these parts made up Volume I, for which a title-page was printed
in gold bronze on surface-coated paper by Vize telly & Branston.
The text of the parts was printed (generally with black, though
occasionally with coloured ink) on vari-coloured paper, within
borders printed in colour and made up, in part, of portions
of what appear to be Congreve's old *' rose-engine " designs,
or others re-engraved on similar lines. Many of the pages
have no text, being filled with oval or rectangular spaces
bordered with designs of the same filigree style, intended for
the reception of printed scraps, poetical effusions,'^ , etc. ;
several of the parts were got out by Whiting. In some of
them are pages of music, reversed, i.e., with the notes and
staff-lines in white on a coloured ground. Books of this kind

123

COLOUR PRINTING

were very popular at that period, and the style was imitated
to a nicety, save that the borders were of the ordinary typo-
graphical character, in the " Album Wreath " of a few
years later. A fine specimen plate of Whiting's colour printing
by Congreve's process (which, by the way, seems never to have
been used for designs of a pictorial character), is preserved at
the St. Bride Foundation, and rather recalls some of the
Orlof! Press productions.

Of aU the workers who printed in colours from wood blocks,
none have achieved so lasting a fame as Geoige Baxter ; the
collection and classification of his prints have indeed been
elevated into a sort of cult, thanks to the multitude of pens
which have been employed on the subject, to the formation
of Baxter Societies, the holding of Baxter print exhibitions,
and, most recent and important of all, to the publication of
Mr. Courtney Lewis's valuable monograph. Yet to those
who are in the habit of studying the chromo-xylography of
the middle of the nineteenth century, it is a little difficult
to discover what all the pother is about. Baxter was a first-
rate draughtsman, an excellent colourist, and withal a pains-
taking printer, but, after all, his work did not furnish the
finis coronat opus of colour printing, even in his own day.
The brilliancy and permanence of his colours always command
attention to his productions, and the careful finish which is
generally evident in even the most trifling details, added to
a certain dignity of appearance imparted by the embossed
mount, all combine to bespeak the favour of the coloiured-
print collector ; in fact, it might almost be said that there is
only one prophet in the world of colour-print collecting, and
that his name is Baxter, as those who gather up and cherish
other coloiured pictures than those produced by his process
are few and far between, save those moneyed enthusiasts
who can afford to indulge in the collection of eighteenth
century mezzotints and stipples in colours. The existence of
Mr. Lewis's book makes it unnecessary for us to deal with the
subject thereof in anything like detail, but some account of

124

GEORGE BAXTER, COLOUR PRINTER

the Baxter process cannot well be omitted in a work like the
present.

George Baxter was literally bom into the printing trade,
in 1804, as the son of a Lewes typographer, whose business
is continued in the Sussex capital at the present day, and
whose chief claim to notoriety, apart from his position as
the father of the colour printer, is the fact that he was one
of the co-inventors of the printers' composition roller, the
other being his friend Robert Harrild, to whose family it
brought fame and fortune. What Baxter did after he left
school is, to a large extent, unknown ; he must, as Mr. Lewis
says, have attained somewhere and somehow a knowledge
of the engraver's art, but just where and how we cannot tell ;
nor do we know whence he obtained the inspiration for his
colour work, or even when his first print was produced. In
Chatto & Jackson's work on wood engraving (1839) it is
stated (p. 710) that Baxter's " first attempts in chiaroscuro
engraving are to be found in a History of Sussex, printed by
his father at Lewes in 1835." This refers to the plate of the
*' Norfolk Bridge, New Shoreham," which was contributed
to the second volume of Horsfield's History of Sussex by the
Duke of Norfolk (Lewis, 10). It is pure chiaroscuro, without
any outline plate, and is printed in three shades of brownish
sepia ; in the inscription at the foot Baxter said that the plate
was " printed in oil colours," but it is quite different from the
plates produced under his patent, and we gather from Chatto
& Jackson that it preceded the colour prints. Considering
the slowness with which county histories were produced in
those days, it is quite likely that it was prepared a year or
two before the publication of the book, and may thus easily be
earlier than the colour work proper. Baxter's first dated
prints (in Robert Mudie's Feathered Tribes of the British
Isles) appeared in 1834, and are in colours, but there is
evidence that he had produced at least one coloured print
some time before, Lewis thinks as early as 1829, but that is
doubtful. From this time forward, however, his production

125

COLOUR PRINTING

was fairly r^ular ; from the start he made it clear that his
speciaUty was printing in " oil colours/' and this distinctive
title was applied to the process aU through his life, and
commemorated after it— on his grave !

As soon as Baxter had decided to follow the career of a
wood engraver and colour printer, he set about obtaining
a patent for his process, on which point Mr. Hardie rightly
observes (in English Coloured Books, 1906) that there was
really nothing in the process to patent. Printing in colours
from wood blocks had been practised for centuries before
Baxter's time, and so far as the colouring by them of an
impression from an engraved metal plate was concerned,
this had been done by Kirkall, Pond, Le Sueur, and others ;
nevertheless, Baxter procured a patent in October, 1835,
about which time he removed his printing establishment
from King Square, Goswell Road, to the rather more aristo-
cratic location of Charterhouse Square. Here he settled
down for some years, and, following the usual practice, gathered
some pupils round him, among those who were thus trained
under his eye being Harrison Weir, himself a native of Lewes,
and George C. Leighton, who in after years was destined to
be an active rival. Baxter's process was simply the colouring
of an impression from an outUne or key block, which could be
either a copper, zinc or steel plate, or a litho stone — ^though the
latter was but seldom used — ^by successive impressions from
colour blocks of wood or metal, one for each tint used. The
intention was avowedly to produce " ornamental prints " in
colours, " resembling a highly coloured painting, whether in
oil or water-colours," instead of monochrome prints coloured by
hand in the manner commonly seen in, for example, Acker-
mann's well-known publications ; there was, in fact, no colour
printing in use in England at the time when Baxter commenced
his work, and for a few years he had the field to himself. Soon
after he entered into occupation at Charterhouse Square, he
must have commenced work on that fine book, The Pictorial
Album, or Cabinet of Paintings, issued by Chapman & Hall

126

KL\- ri.ATi-: or i!.\\Ti;k"s "iior.r.

BAXTER'S PROCESS

at the end of 1836 or beginning of 1837. It is a small quarto
volume, in a handsome specially-designed binding, contains
a title vignette and ten full-page plates moimted on tinted
paper, and is of exceptional interest as being the first book
of a popular character, illustrated by pictures printed in
colours, that was published in England. Here we see Baxter
at his best, the pictures being graceful in detail and delicate
in colouring, rather gaining in effect than otherwise by the
absence of the usual smooth glazed surface. The prints are
mostly imitations of pictures by well-known artists of the time,
engraved by Baxter and coloured by his process. A great
many other books (Lewis mentions over a hundred) contain
illustrations in colours produced by Baxter, but they were
printed for publishers in the ordinary course of business,
and although many of them are fine examples of his method,
it may safely be said that in no case was the high-water mark
of the Pictorial Album passed. Baxter was an artist to his
finger tips, and used line engraving, aquatinting and mezzo-
tinting with equal f acihty in the preparation of his key plates ;
the impressions from these, in very many cases, being fully
finished pictiures, the subsequent workings only adding colour,
not detail. The key plate of " Hollyhocks," for example,
one of Baxter's latest productions (1857) is a beautiful speci-
men of pure aquatinting, with traces of mezzotinting in one
comer. All the printing seems to have been done on hand-
presses of the old platen type, and, at the start at any rate,
was done by boys. But careful and constant personal super-
vision seems to have been given by Baxter himself to every
detail of the business. There was a special arrangement of
points on the tympan of the press (fully described in the
patent specification), for the purpose of securing accurate
register of the colours. They were usually four in number —
one engaging each comer of the sheet to be printed — ^and may
occasionally be detected in untrinmied proof impressions of
Baxter's prints. Small dots or other marks were abo made
on the key plate for the same purpose, but these were covered

127

COLOUR PRINTING

up by colour in the finished picture. The method of preparing
the colour blocks was the same as that described a little further
on in connection with Kronheim's work. No less than twenty-
six specimen prints were sent in with the specification of
Baxter's process, most of them being in colours. Many were
reproduced by lithography in the printed copy of the specifica-
tion, but only in black and white. The originals have no
doubt been destroyed.

About 1842 Baxter made his second and final move to
11 Northampton Square, Clerkenwell, and some time after
he also took in the adjoining house. No. 12. Both of these
houses stiU exist in private occupation ; the entrance to No. 1 1,
with the lion's head knocker that yet remains, is shown in the
well-known print of the " Morning Call," published in 1853.

In view of the fact that Mr. Lewis's book contains a long and
detailed catalogue of the Baxter prints, 376 in number, which
that gentleman's indefatigable researches enabled him to
discover, it is needless to go into any particulars of them here.
The finest is generally admitted to be the so-caUed " Corona-
tion " print, representing the late Queen Victoria receiving
the sacrament on the occasion of her coronation at West-
minster Abbey in June, 1838. This picture, pubUshed in
1842, is a veritable marvel of accuracy and fineness of detail,
and is said to contain about 200 portraits of the distinguished
guests invited to witness the ceremony. Like so many other
of Baxter's prints, the engraved key plate is a complete picture
in itself, and was, in fact, so published, the coloured impressions
being issued separately, and probably in a very small edition ;
this is not only the finest, but one of the largest (21|- x 17|-
inches) of Baxter's prints, and it is also one of the rarest and
consequently the most expensive, Lewis's valuation for a
coloured copy being £35, and for an ordinary sepia impression,
£10 to £15.

Except for the very limited competition of chromo-Utho-
graphy, and the almost non-competitive existence of Knight's
process, Baxter may be said to have had no rivals in his art

128

BAXTER AND HIS PATENT

until the fifties. In the meantime, his patent was on the point
of expiring, and as he considered that he had not been suffi-
ciently remunerated for the trouble and expense he had gone
to in perfecting the process, he decided to petition the Privy
Council for an extension. He was probably tolerably sanguine
about getting it, as not only the Queen, but Prince Albert,
the Queen Dowager (Adelaide), the King of Prussia, and other
great personages had patronized Baxter, and expressed their
admiration of his process and his pictures. He claimed to
have expended ;^,000 on experiments during the life of the
original patent. By this time (1849) his apprentice, Leighton,
had completed his term, and being perhaps well aware that a
coach-and-four could be driven through Baxter's patent
without much trouble, seems to have started to do it. But he
first resolved to try and defeat the application for an extension,
which came on for hearing in June, 1849, the groimd of the
opposition being that if the patent were extended, Leighton,
who had devoted five out of the seven years of his apprentice-
ship to learning Baxter's process, would necessarily be unable
to turn his knowledge of it to any practical account vmtil
1854. But, as it was stated in evidence that some other
ex-apprentices of Baxter's were earning very good wages as
wood engravers. Lord Brougham, by whom the case was
heard, considered that Leighton's argument was demolished
by his own witnesses, so the extension was granted, and his
Lordship added his commendation of the process to that of
many other distinguished persons.

Hitherto, Baxter had retained his patent in his own hands,
but, on the extension being granted, he evidently thought
that it might be a profitable speculation to allow others to use
it for a consideration, and accordingly advertised his willing-
ness to grant licenses to work the process, for a fee of £210
in Great Britain, or £50 in France, Belgium or Germany, in
which countries he had also patented his colour-printing
methods, and had had his rights extended. The result was
what might have been expected ; not more than half a dozen

129

&-(2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

or so English firms were willing to pay him a large sum for
the privilege of operating a process which would become public
property in five years' time. They included Le Blond & Co.,
J. Dickes, J. M. Kronheim, and Myers, in London, and
Bradshaw & Blacklock, of Manchester, about each of whom
a few words will be said presently. In practice, the license
fee seems to have taken the form of an annual pa3mient of
£50. Baxter had a stand for his productions at the Great
Exhibition of 1851, but only received Honorary Mention ;
at New York in 1853, and Paris in 1855, however, he was
awarded medals. About this time he issued some prints in
sepia tones, in the style of the portrait of the Rev. J. Williams
in one of the 1837 editions of Missionary Enterprises, these
prints being termed " Baxterotypes." In 1857 Baxter
obtained provisional protection for a method of machine-
ruling printing surfaces, with a view to obtaining gradations
of tone in etched blocks, but he did not patent the idea. In
1859 he did patent another notion of his, viz. : that of colouring
photos by his process, but is not known to have produced
any pictures by this method ; glass negatives, and even silver
prints, it may be mentioned, were at that period often coloured
by hand. In the following year, for some reason not certainly
known, Baxter decided to retire from the oil-colour printing
business, which seems never to have been a source of great
wealth to him, if the statements he made about it from time
to time are to be believed. That there was considerable founda-
tion for them may be inferred from the fact that he had then
over a hundred thousand of his prints in stock, which, together
with more than a hundred sets of plates and blocks, were
sold by auction, many of them, with the plant and the business
itself, passing into the hands of the late Mr. Vincent Brooks,
a well-known London lithographer, who arranged with Baxter
that he should give a certain amount of personal supervision
to the oil-colour printing branch of his establishment. Other
and cheaper colour printing processes were now, however,
in the field, and thus Baxter's gradually died a natural death,

lao

BAXTER'S PLACE AS A PRINTER

as Mr. Brooks only published a few prints of this kind during
the half-dozen years that he was associated with Baxter
and his process. The inventor died at his residence at Syden-
ham at the commencement of 1867, as the result of an accident,
and was buried in the graveyard of Christ Church, Forest
Hill, where a lofty red granite obelisk, erected by his widow,
commemorates " the sole inventor and patentee of oil-colour
printing." This remarkable instance of post-mortem adver-
tising furnishes in some respects a ke3niote to Baxter's attitude
towards other colour printers and printing processes. The
praise that had been so lavishly bestowed on him in high
quarters seems to have imbued him with the idea that he was
the greatest of all colour printers, and his process the most
wonderful of its kind ever invented, and this idea is reflected
to-day in the writings of his disciples, who are never tired of
bewailing the alleged fact that colour printing on Baxter lines
is a lost art, forgetting or ignoring the certain fact that hundreds
of his own and his licensees' plates and blocks are still in exis-
tence, and could be printed from to-morrow if necessary.
In saying this, the writer does not overlook the personal
equation, as represented by the enthusiasm and energy that
the inventor displayed throughout his business career. Whilst
not uniformly good, few of his own productions are equalled,
and perhaps none excelled, by those of his licensees. His
original designs, however, are mostly of a distinctly early
Victorian character, a phase of art which is now thought
little of, and it is probable that were not the magic name of
Baxter attached to them, many of his prints would get little
attention. But though opinions may differ greatly as to the
intrinsic value of his productions, he has one undoubted claim
to fame, in that he popularised and cheapened colour printing,
much in the same way as his contemporary, Charles Knight,
popularised and cheapened periodical literature. Baxter found
colour printing practically non-existent ; he left it flourishing in
many varieties, nearly all of which, save chromo-lithography,
were probably inspired by his process.

131

COLOUR PRINTING

After his death, Vincent Brooks disposed of the oil-colour
printing business, with the stock of plates, etc., through the
inventor's son, to A. Le Blond, one of the licensees. Young
Baxter kept a few blocks for himself, and was in business for
a short time as an oil-colour printer at Birmingham, but the
process was dead, and could not be revived, so he soon gave
it up, and is supposed to have emigrated to America, whither
one of the Le Blonds had preceded him. Le Blond & Co.
produced prints by the Baxter process with more or less regu-
larity from about 1850 to 1870, when they closed up this
branch of their business, and stowed away the blocks and
plates, together with a large stock of prints ; these remained im-
disturbed until 1888, when they were sold to Mr. Mockler, of
Wootton-under-Edge, the founder of the Baxter cult ; his
collection of prints was sold in its turn in 1896, and a large
part of it was acquired by Mr. Bullock, a Birmingham book-
seller, who extended the circle of Baxter's admirers by issuing
a catalogue of the prints, prefaced by a short account of the
colour printer's life and work. Most of the blocks and plates
had been sold privately by Mockler, in 1894, to Mr. Bramah,
a Sheffield ironmonger, and in his hands they still remain.
There are nearly one hundred steel or copper plates, and
complete suites of the colour blocks accompany most of
them, so that many of the famous " Baxter colour prints "
could still be reproduced from the inventor's own engraved
plates.

Baxter's work, like that of many other pioneers, seems to
have attracted but little attention from his own family or
relations ; or from the public at large after his death. Had
he not been, so to speak, rediscovered by Mockler, his name
and fame would in all probability have completely passed into
the limbo of forgetfulness. Even at the Caxton Quad-cen-
tenary Exhibition held in London in 1877, although colour
prints of nearly all periods, and by many processes, were shown,
Baxter's were not represented. Nor was there any separate
collection of Baxter colour prints at the British Museum until

132

LE BLOND'S COLOUR PRINTS

Mr. F. W. Baxter, a grand-nephew of the printer, generously
presented the Trustees with one a few years since. A number
of books illustrated by the process, as well as some separate
prints by Le Blond, can be seen at the Technical Library of
the St. Bride Foimdation.

Of the firms who worked Baxter's process under license,
the best known is certainly Le Blond & Co., who carried on
business in Budge Row and Wallbrook. The son of one of
these well-known colour printers, Mr. Robert E. Le Blond,
now resides in Cincinnati, U.S.A., and in a letter to the Inland
Printer (Chicago) in February, 1909, gave an interesting
account of his recollections of the process, albeit he was only
a lad of fifteen when it was being carried on by his father
and Abraham Le Blond. Although the patent had expired
at the time of which he wrote (1854-5) precautions were yet
taken to prevent strangers from seeing the process in operation.
The father went to America in 1856, leaving Abraham in charge
of the business, which was moved to Kingston about 1860,
when several of the old hands left and went to Kronheim's ;
the firm had about twenty platen presses, and half a dozen
litho and copperplate presses, employed in producing Baxter
prints. It is curious that although Mr. R. E. Le Blond is
said to have the finest collection of Baxtertype prints in
America, he has never seen a genuine " Baxter " ! Le Blond's
best prints are the series of ovals, some thirty in number,
mostly depicting English rural scenes. Many of Baxter's
plates were re-used by him after the inventor's death, prior
to which time, however, he had issued a good many prints
on his own account, bearing his name as licensee.

Dickes, whom Lewis deservedly terms a fine colourist, had
premises in Old Fish Street, Doctors' Commons ; his best
work by the Baxter process is Studies from the Great Masters,
issued in nine 25. parts, each containing two pictures, in
1859-62, by Hamilton Adams & Co. Some of the prints, such
as the " Blind Beggar," after Dyckmans, which forms the
frontispiece, are very good, but others are spoiled by mediocre

133

COLOUR PRINTING

drawing and rather glaring colours; Hess's " Christ Blessing
Little Children " has a background of gold. These prints,
like Kronheim's, were from metal plates, and there was no
mention of Baxter anywhere in the volume, although as the
patent had expired several years before, there was no particular
reason why he should be mentioned. Even when Dickes worked
the process under license, he was content to use the word
" Licensee " without referring to Baxter, as in the prints
he did for Abeokuta (Nisbet & Co., 1853) and Captain Spencer's
Turkey, Russia, etc. (1854). On the back covers of some of
the later parts of the Studies, a number of flattering press
opinions of the work were quoted, most of them containing
some general allusion to colour printing, but in no case was
Baxter referred to, in the quoted passages at any rate. The
burden of these opinions was to the effect that much of the
colour printing of that day was both dear and bad ; the
Literary Gazette, for example, said that '' Art printing in colours
has long been in use, but either it has been comparatively
costly in the process or weak in the results." Dickes went
on producing prints of Baxtertype character down to the
seventies, and some good examples of his later work of this
class can be seen in a couple of volumes he illustrated for
the S.P.C.K., Scenes in the East (1870), and Sinai and
Jerusalem; several of the pictures in these books have an
aquatint plate as a key for the colours.

After Baxter himself, J. M. Kronheim must have been the
most prolific producer of Baxter prints. He was a German,
who, after some experience in Paris and Edinburgh as an
engraver and designer, came to London, and established
himself as an art printer in Paternoster Row in 1846. His
Baxter prints were produced in a manner different from that
which Baxter himself used, inasmuch as the suite of blocks
that imparted the colours to the steel or key plate impression
were of zinc or copper instead of wood, the latter being very
liable to warp. As many proofs were puDed from the key
plate as there were intended to be colours in the picture, and

134

KRONHEIM'S COLOUR PRINTS

each of these being off-set on a metal plate, and the extent
to which colour was to be appUed by that particular plate
having been decided upon, the rest of the metal surface was
cut away, leaving the colouring portion in relief. In those
parts of the key plate which represented flesh, a stipple was
generally used, otherwise line engraving was the rule, and
aquatint is sometimes seen on the colour plates. The finished
prints contained from eight to sixteen colours ; in a typical
ten-colour job there would be a yeDow, two flesh tints, two
blues, three reds and a brown, the lightest blue being usually
printed on top of the impression from the key plate. Thirty
or forty platen presses and the same number of copperplate
ditto were used, and about 1,800 pulls was considered a very
good day's work. The process was worked down to as recently
as 1878, so that it was in operation for about thirty years,
and more than 3,000 designs, separate prints as well as book
illustrations, were produced by the firm during that time.
Kronheims illustrated a great number of books by their
improved Baxter method, for various publishers, including
Cassell's Book of Birds (60 plates) ; Anne Pratt's Flowering
Plants (Wame & Co., 320 plates) ; The Pilgrim's Progress
(R. T. S., 1861) ; and The Nobility of Life (Wame & Co.,
1869). This latter work was only partially illustrated by them,
some of the other coloured prints it contains being produced
by Edmund Evans from wood blocks, so that the comparative
results of the two processes may be studied in the same volume.
Two of Kronheim's prints from this book, " Duty " and
" Dignity," were reproduced by the present firm of Kronheim
& Co. on some calendars for 1909 which they issued, and a
few sets of proofs (of which the writer has one) were pulled
at the same time from the plates, and bound up, so as to show
the successive stages in the production of the complete picture.
One of these pictures appears in the present volume. Messrs.
Kronheim & Co. still possess a large stock of the plates from
which their Baxtertype prints were produced, and a very
detailed account of the process, as worked by them, was given

135

COLOUR PRINTING

in a lecture delivered by their manager (Mr. F. W. Seeiey)
in the Spring of 1908, of which a full report appeared in the
British and Colonial Printer and Stationer of March 12th in
that year. The artistic value of their prints varies consid-
erably, but it must be borne in mind that the products of
colour printing, like those of any other commercial process,
differ in quality according to the price paid for them, though
this is a point often overlooked. The man who buys a six-
penny part of some popular serial, with half a dozen three-colour
process prints in it, gets his sixpennyworth and no more.

Bradshaw & Blacklock followed the example of Baxter
by publishing in 1853 the Pictorial Casket of Coloured Gems,
which contained, however, about three times as many coloured
prints (33 in all) as did Baxter's Pictorial Album, and was issued
in parts, supphed to subscribers only. Among the separate
prints they produced were a number of Scripture subjects,
of no great merit. Of Vincent Brooks' colour printing from
rehef surfaces in the Baxter style, hardly anything has been
recorded by the writers on Baxtertype ; it may be mentioned,
however, that he took over a part of Leighton's business at
the time the latter left Red Lion Square for the Strand, and
for a time produced prints after his manner, in which the
aquatinted plate for surface printing is sometimes in evidence.
Several examples may be seen in that chromographically
interesting, if typographically insignificant volume The Circling
Year (R. T. S., 1871), which is quite a specimen book of the
colour printing processes of that day. Only one has Brooks'
imprint, but two, if not three others are evidently his pro-
ductions ; the three undoubted ones are after designs by
John Gilbert, and the style of the colouring suggests that
they are from some of Leighton's old blocks. In any case,
the general appearance is somewhat like that of Leighton's
earliest Illustrated London News pictures.

In addition to the regular producers of colour printing,
there were some others, towards the middle of the last century,
who indulged in work of this character in connection with

196

THE COLOUR WORK OF THE CHISWICK PRESS

a few special books, or the publications of a particular writer.
Prominent among these is the Chiswick Press, founded by
Charles Whittingham the elder towards the end of the eight-
eenth century. Their work was good, but presented nothing
worthy of special remark for many years, apart from the
fact that a few copies of an edition of the Book of Conunon
Prayer they got out in 1806 were printed on coloured paper,
and of colour work there was practically none, unless we except
a set of illustrations to Puckle's " Club." The edition in
which they originally appeared was issued in 1817, when,
according to Lowndes, several freaks in the way of limited
editions were perpetrated, as some copies were on yellow
Chinese paper, and a few on satin. Soon afterwards (1820),
J. Thurston, the artist who had designed the series of little
pictures for the work, had twenty-five of them republished
separately, " printed in colours " on India paper, in an edition
of 100 copies issued to subscribers only, the style being the
one sometimes adopted at that time for lithographs, i.e., the
black outUne was printed on a coloured ground, with the lights
engraved out. It is doubtful whether either the 1817 edition
of The Club or this volume of pictures was actually
produced at the Chiswick Press. Warren, the historian of
the Press, seems to know nothing of the matter, nor, it may
be remarked, does — apparently — the editor of the next edition
of The Club (1834), that was certainly got out by Whittingham,
and in which the cuts of the 1817 edition were rather disparag-
ingly alluded to. During the forties a few books illustrated
in colour were got out by the Press, chiefly the publications
of Henry Shaw, F.S.A., who, like Savage, preferred a good
book to a good profit, spending most of the latter on expensive
methods of illustration. His Encyclopedia of OrnamerU
(1842), a modest forenmner of Jones' Grammar, might have
been alternately entitled an encyclopaedia of book illustration^
so many and so diverse were the processes employed in the
production of the plates which appear in it. Line engravings,
aquatints, woodcuts, lithographs, aU are there, each fulfilling a

137

COLOUR PRINTING

particular purpose in the general scheme, the title-page repre-
senting the tooling of a sixteenth century binding of the inter-
lacing strap-work type known as " Grolieresque," from its
frequent occurrence on the books which that worthy had
bound for his own use and that of his friends. This was
reproduced by the Whittinghams from wood blocks in five
colours, red, green, black (for the outUnes), blue and yellow,
the actual wording of the title being in the central panel,
in red, green and black. A stiU better — being a pictorial —
example of chromo-xylography is exhibited by the reproduction
of a German illustration of 1472, in black and six colours,
this being a work that would do no discredit to Baxter. The
volume also contains a few two-colour aquatints in various
yellow and orange tones, representing old bookbindings,
tile patterns, etc. In another of Shaw's works. The Dresses
and Decorations of the Middle Ages (1843), the separate plates
are aquatints of very fine grain, mostly tinted by hand, although
a few, such as " The Black Prince," are partly printed in
colours in very good style, but so far as colour printing is
concerned the feature of the book is its fine series of woodcut
initials printed in several tints, with, in many cases, elaborate
marginal ornament extending the length of the page. In
this branch of colour work the Chiswick Press proved itself
equal to any other firm in the same line. • Shaw's Alphabets
and Numerals (Pickering, 1845), contains several pages of
initial letters, reproduced from old MSS. in four colours, some
of the illustrations being heightened with gold, though a few
are tinted by hand. This was practically the last of Shaw's
colour-iUustrated books, as the expense was found to be too
great to warrant their continuance, and henceforward Shaw
contented himself with having illustrations printed in a sepia
tint. An example of this kind of thing, though not one of
Shaw's, will be found in Mrs. Bray's Life of Thomas Stothard,
published by John Murray in 1851, the illustrations in this
case being woodcuts, printed by Bradbury & Evans. In
the beautiful edition of Juvenal and Persius, printed by the

138

MORE CHISWICK PRESS BOOKS

Chiswick Press in 1845, every page is surrounded by an orna-
mental frame of " combination border " character, with a
rule each side, the whole being worked in red. This was the
volume for which Charles Whittingham appUed to the Caslon
Foundry for a supply of old-style roman t5^e, but as some
delay took place in its publication, the revival of " old-style "
was first made through the medium of Lady Willoughby's
Diary, Warren, referring to the colour work of this press
in The Charles WhitUnghams (Grolier Club, 1896), describes
the younger Charles, the nephew of the founder, as personally
mixing and grinding his colours on a marble slab, and taking
infinite pains to get them to the proper consistency and shade.
" No other establishment I know of," says Warren, " ever
printed in solid colour in the fashion of the plates in Shaw's
books." Like most other really good work, however, the
personal satisfaction which Whittingham and Shaw derived
from doing it formed, it is to be feared, their only reward.
Considered from the colour printer's point of view, perhaps
the most remarkable of the Chiswick Press colour-printed
volumes was Oliver Byrne's edition of Euclid's Six Books of
Elements, published by Pickering in 1847. Byrne was surveyor
of Crown Lands in the Falkland Islands, and a mathematician
to boot ; he conceived the idea of providing students of
geometry with a short cut to memorising the " Elements,"
by issuing an edition " in which coloured diagrams and
symbols are used instead of letters, for the greater ease of
learners." The volume is dedicated to Earl Fitzwilliam, and
its pages, with their very numerous geometrical diagrams in
colour, are decidedly picturesque ; four colours were used,
red, blue, yellow and black, applied flat, and often all of
them occur in a single diagram. Instead of " the angle
A B C," etc., the author speaks of the red or the " blue
angle " (or line), and talks of multiplying them by angles or
lines of other colours, a decidedly original idea. For the
Exhibition of 1851 the Press produced " Robin Goodfellow's
Christmas Carol," printed in red, blue and black Gothic letter

139

COLOUR PRINTING

on a large folio sheet ; and in the year following appeared a
broadside of the same size, " The First or Grenadier Regiment
of Foot Guards, its Origin and Principal Services," in old
style roman letter, red, blue and black, with ornamental
initials in colour, and a red decorative border surrounding the
whole. This has no imprint, but is almost certainly the work
of the Chiswick Press.

140

CHAPTER VI

COLOUR PRINTING IN THE NINETEENTH

CENTURY

Chkomo-xylography. Paht II

KNIGHT — LEIGHTON — VIZETELLY — EVANS — FAWCETT —
SILBERMANN— THE KN6FLEES— HODSON. ETC.

S soon as it was seen that a pro-
cess of producing, at moderate
cost, book illustrations and
other similar prints in colours,
was actually in operation and
likely to prove a coirnnercial
success, several competitors
entered the field that Baxter
had for a few yeais occupied
alone. The earliest of these was
Charles Knight, better known
as the pioneer of cheap illustrated magazine literature. He, like
Baxter, was bom (1791) into the trade, being the son of a Windsor
printer, and it is a curious coincidence that both of them left
their native towns in 1827 to try their fortunes in London.
Knight, having edited his father's Windsor and Eton Express ior
fifteen years, naturally had leanings towards joumaUsm, and
his starting of the Penny Magazine, in 1832, proved to be one
of his most successful ventures. From magazines, his next
step was to books, but many of his larger pubUcations were
issued on the old Unes, i.e., in the form of parts published at
regular intervals at a cheap rate. All his earlier works were
illustrated by woodcuts, and the many thousands of these
which his books and magazines required resulted in a revival
of that branch of art. In June, 1838, Knight patented a
141

COLOUR PRINTING

colour-printing process, to which he gave the name of " illu-
minated printing," his object being the economical multi-
plication of coloured pictures, maps, drawings, etc., and the
specification relates chiefly to the printing methods and
mechanical processes he employed. At first only four colours
were contemplated, and by some ingenious mechanism he
contrived that they should all be applied in the course of
a single passage of the sheet through the press, which was
operated by hand. Knight, like Savage, had a decided
preference for a press of the " Ruthven " t}rpe, in which the
platen was normally at the back, but was brought over the
forme by means of two springs, which " gave " to the pull,
but resumed their ordinary position when the bar was released.
Knight fitted the machine, in place of the usual bed, with a
polygonal revolving frame or, as he called it, " prism "
(attached to a rising table), each face of which, carrying a
colour block, was applied in succession to the sheet as the frame
revolved. In an alternative method, the frame with the blocks
on it revolved on a sort of turn-table, placed on the bed of the
press ; whilst in a third, the tympan, with the sheet attached,
was carried from block to block. It will be remembered that
this idea of printing several colours at one operation of the press
had been to some extent anticipated by Lalleman, at Paris,
two centuries earlier. The specification also describes an
apparatus in which the colour blocks were on beds, hinged to
the sides of a square table, and turned backward to be inked
by hand, and down again for the impression. The process
was in regular operation in 1839, as the Quarterly Review for
December in that year contains an article, headed " The
Printer's Devil," in which is a description of Clowes' printing
establishment, and a fairly lengthy reference to Knight's
colour-printing method, which the writer of the article in ques-
tion saw at work, in connection with the production of " Patent
Illuminated Maps." He describes the printing apparatus
as resembling a square box, each of the four sides of which
carried a printing plate, for blue, yellow, red and black

142

KNIGHT'S "ILLUMINATED PRINTING"

respectively, which were appUed to the sheet in the order named,
the last having the letterpress matter for the names of places,
etc. The tints being partly blended on the paper, three more
were furnished in that way, i.e., the yellow and the red gave
orange, the yellow and the blue green, and so on, there being
thus seven colours in all.

A couple of early specimens of Knight's " Illuminated
Printing " are included in Chatto & Jackson's work on
wood engraving (1839), a circumstance which is accounted
for by the fact that the book in question was published by
Knight. Like Baxter, he was connected by marriage with
a well-known printing trade firm, Messrs. Clowes & Sons, his
daughter having married George Clowes, and his colour
printing was done for him by them, the pictures being pro-
duced from wood blocks, coloured by plates of stereo metal.
The four-colour paper covers of the volumes in " Knight's
Industrial Library " were probably produced by the earliest
form of his process ; later on, he increased the nimiber of
colours from four to — ^in some cases — as many as a dozen.
The best exemplification of this later method is to be found
in his Old England, which was issued in about 100 parts during
1844-5, but Knight, being a more modest man than Baxter,
contented himself with a very brief reference to his patent
in an allusion to the method by which the coloured pictures
were produced. Each colour was printed on top of the
preceding one whilst the latter was still wet, the sheets of
paper remaining, stationary in the press until all the colours
had been apphed. These latter, by the way, were stated
to be " oil colours," as were Baxter's. One wonders whether
the latter ever remonstrated with Knight for thus copying the
most distinctive feature of his own process. In other respects,
however. Knight's method was just the opposite of Baxter's,
as the latter coloured by printing from wood blocks an impres-
sion from a metal plate, whereas Knight printed his colours
j&rst from metal plates and then added an impression from
a wood block.

143

COLOUR PRINTING

Old England is in two folio volumes, each of which contains
a dozen coloured plates. They exhibit chiaroscuro work
of a good type, though lacking the minuteness of detail and
delicacy of finish which distinguish Baxter's productions ;
nevertheless, there is a boldness and originality about some
of Knight's pictures that forms a welcome change from the
rather finical elaboration of Baxter. Many of them represent
architectural interiors, and as a draughtsman was employed
who had an intelligent grasp of Gothic detail, the effect is
often very good, though in some instances, e,g,, the Tomb
of Mary Queen of Scots and Stratford Church Door, one wishes
that the little patches of bright colour had been omitted,
so as to leave the print in its original chiaroscuro state. It
is necessary to point out here that these pictures are seen
at their best in the first edition, the illuminated title-page
of the first voliune of which is dated 1844. Some twenty
years after, the work was republished (with the old date on
the title) by Sangster, who employed Leighton to do the
coloured plates ; he changed the colour scheme materially
in many cases, and his reprints of Knight's pictures are mostly
rather poor. For some he seems to have engraved fresh blocks,
the old ones being perhaps warped or damaged. This is
evident in the title-page of Volume I of Sangster's edition,
which is easily known by its bright red-and-gold cover. Knight
also used his process in the production of the coloured plates for
Old England's Worthies (1847), and for some of his smaller
books, but the illustrations in these are not generally so good
as those in Old England.

For some reason unknown, the process seems to have been
abandoned after only a few books had been illustrated by it,
and thus we find that some other and later of Knight's serial
pubUcations, like the Pictorial Shakespeare and the Pictorial
History of England, contain no colour prints, both the method
and the apparatus, though excellent in theory, being probably
found slow and cumbersome in practice.

Knight had, perhaps, no intention of rivalling Baxter in a

144

GREGORY, COLLINS & REYNOLDS' COLOUR WORK

commercial sense, but the next colour printer whom we have
to notice certainly did his best to do so. This was the late
George C. Leighton (1826-1895), who has already been men-
tioned as opposing the extension of Baxter's patent in 1849.
He was at that time working with the colour-printing firm of
Gregory, Collins & Reynolds, who were originally located in
Hatton Garden, whence they removed to Baxter's old place in
Charterhouse Square, after he had vacated it for Northampton
Square. Their colour work was then of a rather mediocre
character, consisting chiefly of " illuminated " title-pages
and illustrations for juvenile and other cheap books. An early
example may be seen on the title-page of an edition of Bishop
Heber's Palestine, published by Clark & Co. in 1843 ; this is
in three colours and gold, but much of the latter has turned
black. The interlacing design in gold and colours on the
covers is perhaps also their work, though it is in a much better
style than the title. In A. Suckling's Memonals of some
Essex churches and parishes, published by Weale in 1845,
are several coloured plates by Gregory, Collins & Reynolds,
though most of the illustrations in the book are black-and-tint
lithographs by Standidge. The prints of Layer Mamey Tower
and Colchester Castle are fairly good examples for that period,
and there is also an heraldic plate in colours, and one or two
tinted woodcuts. The firm occasionally did colour printing
on cloth for publishers, an example of which can be seen on
The New Gift Book (c. 1848). Colour work on textile fabrics
was not of course new in itself, though probably seldom
practised by letterpress methods. The old Oriental mode
was akin to that by which the Block Book prints and the
later English paperhangings were coloured, but more advanced
methods were practised in France during the latter part of
the eighteenth century, when M. Jouy had a factory at Josas,
near Versailles, in which a process of printing in colours on
fabrics by impressions from successive plates was operated.
In 1780, a Bavarian named Oberkampf introduced a means
of printing the outlines of the picture from a deeply engraved

145

10— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

copperplate, but in 1797 the plates were replaced by engraved
cylinders ; when the place was in its prime, 5,000 yards of
colour-printed material were turned out per day, and forty
hands constantly employed, but in 1843 the business was
discontinued.

After Leigh ton joined Gregory, Collins & Reynolds, about
1847, his experience of Baxter's methods soon led to an im-
provement of their style. The paper-cover titles of some little
books got out by Clarke & Co. in 1845, such as Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice and Countess Hahnhahn's Ulrich, show
much better work, the lettering, with accompanying floral
ornament, being printed on a soUd background of colour or
gold. In April, 1846, they had a specimen of seven-colour
printing from wood blocks inserted in the Art Union, the tints
being flesh, red, yellow, blue, brown and neutral, followed
by the black outline block, as in Knight's process. In 1847
they sent some specimen colour prints to an exhibition held
at the rooms of the Society of Arts, and a year or so later,
Mr. Reynolds having left the firm, Leighton took his place.
A typical example of the work done under his superintendence
is seen in the title-page and frontispiece to the 1849 edition of
Peter Parley's Annnud, from a design by Absolon ; this is good
chromo-xylography, though the plates used for the sky are
apparently aquatinted, an aid to wood-block colour work
which Leighton often favoured. In January, 1851, a drawing
by Landseer, " The Hawking Party," reproduced in colours
from wood blocks by Leighton, appeared in the Art Journal,
much to the disgust of Baxter, although Leighton pointed out
that the processes used by him and his old master were quite
different. Leighton's work, like Baxter's, was shown at the
Exhibition of 1851, in connection with the exhibit of the
publishing firm for which he chiefly worked, Cundall & Addey
of Bond Street, and early in the following year some of the
colour prints shown at the Exhibition were used as illustra-
tions to the Village Queen, by Thomas Miller, several of whose
earlier books had been colour-illustrated by Vizetelly. These

146

GKO. C. l,EiGllT<»N

LEIGHTON'S COLOUR PROCESS

prints are mounted on plate paper, within a gold-line border,
somewhat in Baxter's style, and fairly rival some of Baxter's
work.

By this time the firm had moved to Lamb's Conduit Street,
and had altered their style to Leighton Brothers, George having
taken his brother Blair into partnership. The latter died in
1855, a year which was destined to be an eventful one for
Leighton in more was^s than one, as in the early part of it a
periodical called the Coloured News, illustrated by hand-
coloured woodcuts, made its appearance ; this was similar in
size and style to the Illustrated London News, which had been
started in 1842 by Herbert Ingram, who also got out a good
number of books in connection with which Leighton did some
work. The advent of the Coloured News seems to have sug-
gested to the enterprising proprietor of the Illustrated London
News the idea of issuing coloured pictures in that periodical,
and he consulted Leighton about it. The latter was ready to
undertake the work, so on December 22nd, 1855, colour
printing made its debut in journalism, in the Christmas supple-
ment to the News, four of the pages being occupied by coloured
pictures after drawings by John Gilbert, but they did not con-
stitute a great artistic effort. The designs were engraved as
woodcuts in the ordinary way, and the impressions from them
coloured by etched tone blocks ; both blocks and colouring are
extremely crude, but the idea caught on with the public, and
Leighton could not produce the plates fast enough to satisfy the
demand. Hearing this, Ingram, in his usual energetic way,
rushed off in a cab to Leighton's place in Red Lion Square, and
insisted on taking back with him a nmnber of plates, on which
only one or two of the colours had then been printed ; Leighton
demurred, but Ingram was insistent, and had his way. The
next batch of coloured pictures was published in the News
for May 10th, 1856, when the public were informed that they
were produced by means of " chemical solutions " ; what
this meant it would be difficult to say now, imless Ingram
(who did not mention Leighton's name in connection with

147

COLOUR PRINTING

the work, although, as his imprint was on the pictures, it
was unnecessary) wished to convey that the tone plates were
etched by a modification of the aquatint method, adapted
to surface printing. From this time onward the process was
gradually improved, the coloured supplements appearing
regularly in the News down to the eighties, when chromo-
lithographs took their place. Some of the prints published in
the sixties were fine examples of colour work. From 1857
to 1885 Leighton also did the coloured paper covers and
plates for Ingram's Illustrated London Almanack, which are
fairly representative examples of the cheaper class of his
work.

In August, 1858, Leighton was appointed printer and
publisher of the Illusiraled London News, and from 1860
consequent on the accidental death of Ingram, he had almost
complete control of the paper during the surviving sons'
minority. His brother Stephen, the other partner in the
firm of Leighton Brothers, looked after the general colour
printing business of that concern at Milford House, Strand,
and under his active superintendence much good work was
turned out, although, like that of Kronheim and other printers
in colours on an extensive scale, it varied in quaUty according
to circumstances.

An interesting example is seen in Barnard's Landscape and
Water Colour Painting (1858), in which many of the plates
represent the various colour stages necessary in the production
of a water-colour drawing. A rather unpleasant feature of
some of Leighton's coloured pictures is the strong hard outline
of the woodcut or black block, as seen in Ward & Lock's
Fields and Woodlands and Pictorial Beauties of Nature (1873),
as well as in £. V. Boyle's Beauty and the Beast (1875). Much
better work occurs in some of the plates for Gems of English
Art of this Century (Routledge, 1869), which contains twenty-
four full-page illustrations reproduced from pictures in the
national collection ; all these were printed in oil colours
from wood blocks, and several of them are really excellent

148

LEIGHTON'S SPECIMEN BCK)K

productions, that would probably be " collected " if they
bore Baxter's name instead of Leighton's. Some, however,
like " II Duetto " or " The Fisherman's Home," might have
been omitted without loss to the book. Judging from the
point marks at the side of the print. Constable's " Valley
Farm " required twelve blocks for its reproduction.

Some time in the sixties, the firm published a folio volume
of Specimens of Colour Printing, containing twenty-seven
plates, some having several subjects on them. This is a rare
book, and is of importance as furnishing examples of practically
every phase of Leighton Brothers* colour work, from reproduc-
tions of pictures in the highest style of their art, down to
purely commercial subjects like tile patterns. There are two
or three prints after pictures by Birket Foster, whose work
was more conunonly reproduced in colour by Evans, and
several of birds and animals after Harrison Weir, whose Alphabet
of Animals (1857) was illustrated by twenty-four coloured
plates of this character.

Leighton vacated his post of printer-publisher of the /i/i«s-
trated London News in 1884, and two or three years afterwards
closed up his firm's colour printing business, then located in
Drury Lane. He had married a niece of Faraday, the famous
philosopher, and died at Highgate in 1895.

Round about the middle of the nineteenth century, the
wood block processes were more popular than any others
used for the production of coloured book illustrations, so that
the Leighton firm had quite a number of rivals in this respect,
only a few of which, however, need be mentioned here, and
of these we will deal first with Henry Vizetelly (bom 1820),
the son of a London publisher, James VizeteUy, who came to
grief in 1840. Henry was apprenticed to a wood engraver,
and after having served his time, started business with his
brothers as engravers and printers in one of the purlieus of
Fleet Street, subsequently removing into that thoroughfare.
At the time his father's firm collapsed, it was engaged in the
production of an elaborately decorated edition of Lockhart's

149

COLOUR PRINTING

Ancient Spanish Ballads, for John Murray ; Owen Jones, the
pioneer of chromo-Uthography in England, was responsible
for all the ornamental designs in the volume, and being fresh
from his great work on the Alhambra, then in process of
pubUcation, was in a position to prepare something of a
character appropriate to the book. Much of the colour decora-
tion is, indeed, reminiscent of that of the Alhambra, particularly
the numerous separate titles, which were lithographed in gold
and colours by Jones himself ; nearly all the rest of the work
was got out by the Vizetellys, and so far as the colour printing
part of it is concerned, consists of ornamental borders, initials,
and head and tail-pieces, mostly printed in a single tint, though
occasionally in two, red and blue or blue and yellow. It
is a fine example of letterpress colour work, even the end
papers being printed in gold and colours, and the list of con-
tents in red and blue, whilst the publisher's list of books at
the end of the volimie is in a puce tint, within borders. There
are a few separate plates, woodcuts printed in black on a lemon-
coloured ground, pictorial letterpress work in colours being
as yet almost a monopoly of Baxter's establishment. In
1856, Murray republished the work, Owen Jones supplying
the decorations as before, but on this occasion the printers
were Bradbury & Evans, who produced a volume in every
respect worthy to be placed with the previous one. The
greater part of the ornamental detail was new, including a
beautiful series of titles in red and blue ; the chromo-litho-
graphed titles were not so frequent, and the Alhambra motif
was replaced by another of a different tjrpe. The general style
and formation of each edition were the same, and in an uncut
state, in their original gold-stamped bindings, these two
volumes are amongst the finest of their kind.

The BaUads was followed in 1845 by an edition of the Book
of Common Prayer on somewhat similar lines, this also being
published by Murray, and decorated with initials, borders,
etc., by Jones, all of which were specially designed for the
volume ; the initials were in two colours throughout, red

150

VIZETELLY'S COLOUR-PRINTED BOOKS

and black or red and blue. Much of the beautiful marginal
ornament, as well as some of the borders, was likewise in two
colours, and occasionally — as in the opening pages of the
Order for Morning Prayer — in three, red and blue stem and
leaf ornament on a black background, sprinkled with white
dots. In these cases the entire design was first printed in
black, and the colours added on top, the several separate
titles being chromo-lithographed by Jones, as in the Ballads,
but the full-page woodcuts were within broad borders, printed
on a yellowish ground. The most elaborate section of the
book is the Conmiunion Oflftce, which has a fine series of
two-colour initials of Gothic character, in three sizes, and
two-colour marginal ornament to every page ; the entire
volume is rubricated. It was issued again in 1850, in the same
style, and the illustrations and some of the two-colour initials
appeared in a still later edition, from which, however, nearly
all the fine colour work is absent.

Vizetelly did not do very much in the way of pictorial colour
printing. For Mrs. Sinnett's Story About a Christmas in the
Seventeenth Century (1846) he printed the frontispiece in black
on a yellow ground, which was afterwards coloured by hand,
and in Wonderful Stories for Children, published in the same
year by Chapman & Hall, are a few woodcut illustrations
printed in colours, poor in style and bad in register, but in
Christmas with the Poets (Bogue, 1851) he went a step further,
and probably furnished Edmund Evans with the idea for his
first essays in engraving for colour work. This volume has fifty
small illustrations after Birket Foster, printed in black, with a
tone (grey or light brown) applied from a second block with the
lights engraved out, though a third was used in some cases.
There was a number of large ornamental initials in black and
gold, so that some of the pages required four workings, against
the three of the Ballads or the Prayer Book. The Great
Exhibition being held in the year in which it was pubUshed,
this book was selected by the Trustees of the British Museum
as a representative example of contemporary British printing

151

COLOUR PRINTING

and engraving, and as such was shown to many of the
distinguished foreigners who were in London at that time.

As a colour engraver of pictorial subjects for popular books,
Vizetelly, though not a prolific worker in that line, preceded
Evans by some years, and excellent examples of this branch
of his work will be found in the frontispieces and floral titles
he produced in four tints for Thomas MiUer's Boys* Spring
Book, and the three companion volumes that made up the
cycle of the seasons (Chapman & Hall, 1847). These
charming little volumes provide, in their way, as good specimens
of colour work as did Mudie's four volumes of EUtnefUs,
illustrated in similar style by Baxter eleven years before.
An entirely different class of work appears in Noel Humphrey's
illuminated edition of The Book of Ruth, published by Long-
mans in 1850 ; indeed, were it not for the presence of Vizetelly's
imprint at the foot of the last page, one would be inclined
to attribute this dainty little volume to Owen Jones, so exactly
does its style resemble that of the chromo-lithographed volumes
he did for the same publishing firm at this period ; the lettering
of the title is in gold, that of the text is in black letter, with
rustic initials, and floral borders in colours on a gold ground.

In the year following, Humphre3rs published his SenHmetUs
and Similes of Shakespeare, as " an example of book decoration "
(he tells us in the Preface), embodying " the latest refinements
in decorative printing," the Shakespearean selections being
*' enshrined, as it were, in a reliquary as rich as a combination
of the typographic and litho-chromic arts could form." It
says much for the credit of Vizetelly's press that a work of
such special merit was entrusted to him by its author, and
whatever may be thought of the work by the present-day
printer, there can be but little doubt that Humphreys'
critical eye was pleased and satisfied. The style adopted is
quite unusual, each page being divided up by four plain
gold rules, crossing and running to the edges of the leaf, so as
to leave a rectangular space in the centre for the text. The
lines commence with capitals on a gold groimd : there is a

152

VIZETELLY'S MASTERPIECE

gold rule between every two lines, and as the lines of course
vary in length, each is filled out with an ornament in gold. With
the running and chapter headings in gold capitals, and the
large decorative initials at the head of each section in gold
on a black ground, this volume is a fine piece of artistic typo-
graphy, that could not easily be matched. The lettering of
the title is in red, black and gold, but the principal artistic
feature of the book is the first page of the text, beautifully
printed in chromo-lithography, before the text was adjusted
to it. It is a very fine piece of colour printing, and fully
merits Hmnphre3rs' eulogium of it. " Recent progress in
various kinds of printing," said he, " has enabled the press
to rival the art of the illuminator himself, and the highly en-
riched bordering round the first page of this book is entirely
the result of this new application of art. The whole labour
of the decoration has, after the manner of the later and more
eminent illuminators, been directed to the first page, instead
of being spread over the whole volume in multiplied ornaments
of an inferior quality, an unlimited number of separate printings
having been employed, with the desire to make it one of the
most perfect works of an artistic character ever produced by
mere mechanical means." The decoration of this border
is of a character quite appropriate to the Elizabethan age,
and includes a portrait of Shakespeare, tragic and comic
masks, an historiated initial with a scene from Macbeth, and
a great amount of minute detail, all printed in gold and colours.
The beauty of this page probably led to its abstraction from
many copies, including that at the British Museum. This
remarkable volume is in an equally remarkable binding,
the covers being moulded in papier mich6 in imitation of
carved ebony, the design being of a sixteenth century Renais-
sance character, in high relief, and pierced to show a gold
background, in the central panel of the upper cover being a
bust portrait of Shakespeare, in material of a terra-cotta tint,
and in a similar panel on the lower cover is his monogram,
encircled by a wreath.

153

COLOUR PRINTING

Another interesting example of colour work by VizeteUy
is an octavo edition of Dean Milman's Horace, published by
Murray in 1849. The ** Life " and preliminary portion of the
volume has each page surrounded with a border of classical
design by Owen Jones, printed in a single tint, and to each
book of the text there is a fine title-page printed in colours,
two of these having lettering and floral ornament in red,
yellow and green, on a black background, and surrounded
with a border printed in brown. Others have floral borders
in colours, with the white of the paper for a background, two
or three more having coloured lettering on a yellow ground,
or floral designs in colours on a black ground ; altogether
this volume is a fine and unusual example of letterpress printing
in colours.

Edmund Evans comes next, and is perhaps the best known
of all the wood engravers for colour work, except Baxter.
Bom in Southwark in February, 1826, he was first put to work
in a printing office, but when his artistic inclinations displayed
themselves he, after only six months* tenure of the post of
reading boy, was apprenticed to Landells, the wood engraver.
When his time was up, in May, 1847, he conunenced business
in that line on his own accoimt, ultimately settling, in 1851,
at Racquet Court, Fleet Street, where he secured his first
order for colour work from Messrs. Ingram, Cooke & Co.,
publishers of the National Illustrated Library of popular
books. It was for one of the volumes in that series, Ida
Pfeiffer's Travels in the Holy Land, published in 1852, with
eight tinted illustrations from drawings by Birket Foster.
It was decided that these should be engraved for three printings,
the key or outline block in dark brown, the second in a buff
tint, and the third in a greyish blue. In all these pictures
the sky is very dark and heavy, and is relieved by straggling
little patches of white cloud, giving the effect of a flock of white
birds on the wing, but this peculiar mannerism was abandoned
(except in one case) in the next volume of the series, i.e.,
the same author's Voyage Round the World, also issued in 1852.

154

THE EARLY WORK OF EDMUND EVANS

The illustrations in the two volumes of Duncan's History
of Russia (1854) are of similar character, but in some books by
Miss G. P. Willis (** Fanny Fern"), published about the same
time, there were only two blocks, the outlines, in dark brown,
being tinted with a lighter variety of the same colour.

It cannot be said that these early pictures are of a very
attractive character, though it must be remembered that the
books were low priced. A better and more finished style of
colour work is seen in Sabbath Bells, Chimed by the Poets (Bell
& Daldy, 1856), a series of poetical extracts, accompanied by
illustrations by Birket Foster, which were engraved by Evans
for working in three or four colours. These pictures are on the
text pages, and vignetted. Both the old and the new styles of
colour work will be foimd in this volume, as the handsome wood-
cut initials which b^n each piece of poetry are coloured by
hand, although in the Psalms of David (Sampson Low & Co.,
1862), there is a fine series of woodcut initials printed in red
and blue by Evans. Sabbath Bells is of further interest owing
to the fact that as the textual portion was printed at the
Chiswick Press, the sheets had to be conveyed from the one
establishment to the other in order to be completed, though
all the processes were of the letterpress order ; the work has
been several times reprinted. Perhaps the best of all the books
of this kind that Evans produced was WiUmott's edition of
Goldsmith's Poems, published by Routledge at the end of
1858, which contained forty-one illustrations in colours,
engraved and printed by Evans after drawings by Birket
Foster. These pictures were of a more elaborate character
than those in the BeUs, and great care was bestowed on their
production. They are tinted woodcuts, and were worked
on an ordinary hand-press ; this handsome volume has also
a number of head and tail-pieces designed by Noel Humphreys,
many of which are printed in black and white against a tinted
background, the whole of the printing work, illustrations and
text, being done at Evans's establishment, and every page
framed in a double gold-line border.

155

COLOUR PRINTING

Hitherto, we have been considering book illustrations of a
more or less ordinary character, but in the Art Album (Kent
& Co., 1861) we come to a work in which the pictures are the
primary feature, the text consisting of little more than brief
poetical effusions, descriptive of the subjects of the prints.
There were sixteen of these latter, all separate plates, engraved
and printed in a number of colours by Evans, in the style of the
Baxter prints, which were then beginning to wane in their
popularity. This is perhaps Evans's best art work in colours,
and a few of the pictures, such as T. S. Cooper's " Winter," a
study of sheep in that artist's well-known style ; John Gilbert's
" Marriage of Griselda," and a fruit study after W. Hunt, are
really good, but others are rather mediocre, some of them, like
" The Baron's Chapel," being little better than tinted woodcuts.
Here and there, as in the blue plate for " Lucy," aquatinting
was used to produce a block for surface printing. Another good
colour book of Evans's is Choice Pictures and Choice Poems
(Ward, Lock & Co., 1867), though the twenty-three coloured
pictures in this are mostly of the tinted woodcut type, and
printed on the text pages ; many of them were subsequently
used again in batches for some smaller books. The letterpress
portion of this particular volume, it may be mentioned, was
printed in brown ink, also by Evans.

A distinctly novel class of work occurs in Dulcken's Bible
Album (Ward & Lock, 1863). Here there are fifty-six wood-
cuts, many of them full page, printed in tints by Evans ; the
original outline cuts are evidently of earlier German origin, and
some of them are split or otherwise damaged. Evans seems
to have been entrusted with the task of preparing tone blocks
to accompany them, partly, perhaps, to hide defects, and partly
to give a novel aspect to the work ; only a single tone block
is used for each picture, the tints being mostly grey, sepia,
or a light reddish-brown. Evans engraved his blocks somewhat
in the chiaroscuro manner, so that in many cases the style of
the old German masters of that art was in some degree recalled.
The volume, which was entirely Evans's production, is

156

SOME OF EVANS'S COLOUR BOOKS

interesting as an unusual and little-known example of his
work.

In The Nobility of Life (Wame, 1869), an opportunity is
afforded of comparing the relative effects of the wood-block
colour work of Evans and the Baxtertype process used by
Kronheim & Co. The volume contains twenty-four full-page
plates, mounted on thick toned paper within gold-line borders,
the lettering being also in gold. Each of the two firms con-
cerned printed a dozen of these plates, but it must be admitted
that Evans does not show up here at his best, Kronheim's
pictures, although the register is not always faultless, being
almost uniformly excellent, whereas Evans's, which seem to
have been printed in oil colours to match the others, are often
rather poor by comparison, considered as colour prints. Mr.
Evans's best colour illustrated book, from his own point of
view, was Doyle's Chronicle of England (Longmans, 1864), in
which there were eighty illustrations printed on the text
pages ; many of them, however, are rather stiff and formal, due
in large part to the nature of the subjects, which could hardly
be adapted to picturesque or artistic treatment. But this is
a fine book, though, curiously enough, it has never been
reprinted, notwithstanding that the edition was soon sold out.
Many of the pictures necessitated eight or ten printings, and
it is recorded that this was the last important colour job
done by Evans on a hand-press.

In addition to his work as an engraver and printer of book
illustrations, Evans also built up a reputation as a producer
of coloured book covers, for pasting on the boards. This
branch dates from 1853, when Mayhew's amusing story of
juvenile flirtation, Letters Left at the Pastrycook's, was published ;
the cover of this has a two-colour design in dark blue and
bright red ; other similar covers were prepared for The Log
of the Water Lily, and for an edition of The Lamplighter,
published by Wame & Routledge. These early covers were
mostly printed on white paper, but as this soiled very quickly,
a yellow-coated make was substituted for it, which gave rise

157

COLOUR PRINTING

to the term " yellow-backed/' as applied to the " Railway "
and other series of cheap popular novels. Three-colour covers
— ^printed, of course, from wood blocks — were frequently
prepared for the English editions of works by Mark Twain
and other American authors, the outline block being worked
in dark brown or black, and the flesh tints engraved on the red
tone block, which was printed first, followed by another tone
block in blue or green.

Mr. Evans's name will always be associated with the pro-
duction of cheap colour-illustrated children's books, of which
his firm have printed enormous numbers during nearly half-
a-century. There was a sixpenny series issued by Routledge
in the sixties, in which the pictures were in three or four
colours, and a shilling series in 1874, when five colours were
used, and in this connection it may be mentioned that that
charming little book. Baby's Opera, illustrated by Walter
Crane, was published by Evans on his own account, and was
so successful that an amplified edition of it was produced, imder
the title of Baby's Bouquet, followed in 1887 by Baby's Own
JEsop, In this last, photo-mechanical process blocks were
used for the outlines, though the colours were applied from
wood in the old way. The very numerous children's books,
so quaintly and daintily illustrated in colour by Kate Green-
away (a specimen picture from one of them appears in this
volume), were also turned out from the "Racquet Court
Press," as Mr. Evans termed his printing establishment,
from its location in that Fleet Street alley. These are so
well known that it is not necessary to do more than mention
them and the charming series of Uttle almanacs associated
with the name of this favourite artist, which are getting to
be included amongst " collected " items. The late Randolph
Caldecott was another popular illustrator of children's books
whose designs were reproduced by Evans in colours.

After forty years of work as an engraver and printer,
Mr. Evans retired in 1892, since which date his sons, Edmund
Wilfred and Herbert Evans, have continued the business,

158

THE "RACQUET COURT PRESS"

which has been transferred from its old City home to Swan
Street, in the Borough. Edmund Evans died in 1906, but
it is interesting to be able to record that the art of colour
printing from wood blocks, of which he was one of the pioneers
nearly sixty years ago, is still continued by his sons, who yet
find customers for this class of work, notwithstanding the oft-
repeated tale that wood engraving is dead. Mr. H. Famham
Burke's magnificent Historical Record of the Coronation (1904)
contains several fine plates in which an impression from a half-
tone key block in black was coloured from several wood blocks,
excellent register being maintained, though there is a great deal
of intricate detail in costumes, etc. More recently (October,
1908, to February, 1909), Messrs. Edmund Evans, Ltd., repro-
duced for the Studio half a dozen Japanese colour prints, in
which the colouring was applied entirely from wood, and an
interesting chromo-xylograph of a different character was
produced at the same time for the firm's own Almanac, from
a design by Mr. Graham Robertson.

The English colour printers dealt with up to the present
all worked in London, where they had the advantage of seeing
and knowing what had been or was being done in that line
by their predecessors or contemporaries. We now, however,
come to a man who carried on his work in a little country town,
in a remote part of Yorkshire, and seems to have been absolutely
self-taught, Benjamin Fawcett to wit. Bom at Bridlington,
in 1808, he was apprenticed to a printer in that town, and
occupied himself in his leisure hours by practising drawing
and engraving, arts for which he had a natural bent. In 1830
he started business as a printer, bookbinder and bookseller
at the adjacent town of Driffield. Here, some years later,
he began to get out a series of pictorial copy book covers, the
designs on which were drawn and engraved by himself, and
subsequently some drawing copy books and illustrated
children's books, for a Leeds publishing firm.

The turning-point in his career dates from the time (in the
late forties) when he met the Rev. F. Orpen Morris, Vicar of

159

COLOUR PRINTING

Nafferton, a village near Driffield, who yvas not only a zealous
Churchman, but an indefatigable naturalist. The friendship
between them gradually led to a business connection being
formed, which lasted down to the time when it was severed by
Morris's death in 1892. Which of the twain first suggested the
publication of a series of works on British natural history we
cannot say, but it is certain that Morris undertook to write^
and Fawcett to illustrate and publish, a History of British Birds,
which commenced to appear in shilling parts in the Spring of
1850. The 360 woodcuts it contained were printed on a lemon-
tinted ground and coloured by hand. About this time Fawcett
moved to new premises in Driffield, giving up his retail book-
selling and stationery business in order to devote himself to
printing and publishing. " It was here," according to the
Metnoir of Morris, " that he brought to perfection a new
process, invented by himself, for fine printing in colours, for
which his establishment soon became famous in the trade."
The earliest contemporary public reference to this is probably
that which appeared in Part I of the Birds, announcing the
forthcoming publication of a companion work by Morris, on
the Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of British Birds,
the illustrations in which were to be " executed in an entirely
new manner." The Nests was issued, like the Birds, in parts,
which commenced to appear about January, 1852. The
complete work (as well as the previous one, and many others
of Fawcett's) was published by the London firm of Groom-
bridge & Sons, and contained seventy-eight full-page plates.
As in the Birds, there was a solid background, in this case
of a grey tint, on which the eggs and nests were represented
in their natural size and colour, there being generally a brown
and a black block used to give the markings characteristic
of the eggs of the different species ; here and there a little
hand-touching is in evidence. The work was dedicated to a
local magnate, the Earl of Carlisle, whose patronage, together
with that of many other noblemen and gentlemen, was secured
by the Rev. F. O. Morris, who was Chaplain to the Duke

160

AMIN KAWCKTT

FAWCETT'S PRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR

of Cleveland. The dedicatory address referred to " these
volumes, m which a new invention has been applied in the
department of Art under which they are illustrated." Never-
theless, the result was apparently considered rather unsatisfac-
tory, as in the next work Morris prepared for Fawcett, on
British Butterflies (1853), most of the colouring was applied
by hand, although on some plates there was two-colour work ;
and in a still later publication, on British Moths (1859), the
illustrations were hand-coloured lithographs. Whatever the
reason for this may have been, it was certainly not the inability
of Fawcett to engrave for first-class colour work, as the publica-
tion of the Moths was contemporary with the preparation of
a beautiful voliune of a popular character, illustrated in colours
from wood blocks, viz. : Gems from the Poets (Groombridge^
1860). It contained, besides the illuminated half-title, twenty-
four f uU-page plates, fine examples of pure chromo-xylpgraphy,
which were engraved by Fawcett after drawings by F. A.
Lydon, a Driffield yoyth who served his apprenticeship with
Fawcett, and remained with him until 1883, when he removed
to London, where one of his sons still carries on the business
of a designer and engraver for colour work, and another son is
an etcher of process colour blocks, both having helped their
father in his work for Fawcett. Brilliant sky effects are
a feature of the landscapes Fawcett printed in colours from
Lydon's designs, though the tints in some of the pictures
are rather " dry " and flat ; hand-presses were used, and
the inks were prepared on the premises from dry colours.
Fawcett having an enormous capacity for work, superintended
every department of the business personally, in fact his work
was his only hobby, and the Morris Memoir describes him as
somewhat of a recluse in other respects, so much so that many
residents in Driffield never even set eyes on him. His greatest
illustrated work was Morris's County Seats of Great Britain
and Ireland, started in half-crown parts by Longmans, in 1864.
Each volume contains forty coloured plates, mostly produced
in eight tints, and the first two volumes were issued by Bell

161

1 1^(2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

& Daldy, who succeeded Longmans. Mackenzie, another
London publisher, had charge of the other four, the work
being finally issued, until its completion in 1880, to subscribers
only, of whom there were about ten thousand. The six
volumes were pubUshed at nine guineas, and there was an
additional volume of facsimile autographs of subscribers,
a curious idea. Although the receipts from the work were
in the neighbourhood of ;f 100,000, it was not a commercial
success. These volumes contain much good colour printing,
though some of the pictures are a Uttle hard in appearance,
and it is said that about 2,000 separate blocks were engraved
for them. Among other books for which Fawcett produced
coloured plates may be mentioned Hilberd's Rustic Adornments
(1867), with illustrations which remind one somewhat of those
in Baxter's Cabinet of Paintings, they being surrounded by a
broad plain border in the greyish tint often seen in Fawcett 's
books; Lowe's Beautiful Leaved Plants (1861), with sixty
coloured plates ; Houghton's British Fresh-Water Fishes, with
forty-eight fine plates (one of Fawcett's best natural history
books) ; and Couch's History of the Fishes of the British Islands,
with 256 plates. From a pictorial point of view, one of the
handsomest colour-illustrated works issued from the Driffield
press was Ross's Ruined Abbeys of Britain (Mackenzie, 1882),
which is in two foUo volumes, each containing six really fine
plates, which may rank amongst the best work of the kind.
Soon after its publication, Fawcett's health began to fail, and
later on he was compelled to leave the business in the charge of
his sons, who do not seem to have inherited all their father's
energy and talent ; the trade gradually fell of!, and some
financial losses precipitated a crash in 1894, when the business
came to an end. Fawcett had died at the commencement of
the previous year, and was thus spared the pain of seeing his
plant come to the hanuner, as it did in January, 1895. Though
personally almost unknown outside the Uttle town in which he
lived for sixty years, he was a remarkable man in many ways,
and the day may yet come when the beautiful colour prints he

162

SOME FRENCH COLOUR WORK

produced will be appreciated and sought after. His forty years'
collaboration with the Rev. F. O. Morris resulted in the pro-
duction of a long series of important and valuable works,
particularly in the department of natural history, and many of
them still hold their places as standard authorities on the
subjects with which they deal. Fawcett's publications
obtained honours at many local and international exhibitions,
including medals in 1866-7 and 1881-2.

Although a great deal has been said in this chapter about
English colour printing from wood blocks, it must not be
assumed that work of this character was not being done
in other countries, during the first half of the nineteenth
century. In France, the Royal Printing Office at Paris made
some experiments in this direction as early as the twenties, and
a very good example of the results attained may be seen in
the Album Typographique prepared in 1830 in honour of the
visit of the King and Queen of Naples to the establishment,
during their stay in Paris. This is a folio volume, produced
under the superintendence of the Technical Director of the
Ofiice, M. Duverge, and contains, among other matter, some
medallion portraits of their Majesties, surrounded with
elaborate ornamental borders printed from wood blocks in gold
and colours, though not more than two of the latter seem to
have been used.

Ten years later, an Album Typographique was produced at
Strasburg by Gustav Silbermann (bom 1801), a printer who,
to some extent, worked on the same lines as Baxter, with
whom he was, of course, contemporary. The Album was
issued to commemorate the alleged fourth centenary of the
invention of typography by Gutenberg, and has a title-page
printed in four colours, red, green, blue and gold, the text
being in brown. It is letterpress work, into the compo-
sition of which " combination " borders largely enter. Silber-
mann was an exhibitor at the London Exhibition of 1851,
where his art was described as " a new process ** ; amongst
the specimens of his work shown on that occasion were some

163

COLOUR PRINTING

reproductions in colours from wood blocks of the stained-
glass windows of Strasburg Cathedral, engraved to scale.
There was also a lithographed map, tinted by letterpress
printing, and some illustrations of soldiers, printed in oil
colours and mounted on cardboard to serve as children's
toys. Many hundreds of thousands of these were turned out
by Silbermann. In 1872, after a career of forty years as a
printer, he decided to retire from business, and in order to
mark the occasion issued an Album d' Impressions Typo-
grapkiques en Couleur, containing fifty-two plates. The titie
from the former Album was re-used, and there were many
other fine colour plates in addition, including a chromatic
scale constructed by M. Chevreul, comprising seventy-three
shades, and some reproductions of decorations from illimiinated
MSS. Most of the prints, however, were in only two or three
tints, though Silbermann's chief object in the publication of the
volume was to show other t)^graphers the possibilities of
letterpress printing in colours, his own efforts in that direction
having been so well appreciated that they gained for him
eleven prize medals at various exhibitions. He died at Paris
in 1876.

The most noteworthy living exponents of chromo-xylography
on the Continent are undoubtedly the Brothers Knofler, of
Vienna, who, for more than a quarter of a century, have been
producing the beautiful colour prints which may be seen in
the windows of many London art dealers. Their father,
Heinrich Knofler (1824-1886), pioneered this class of work
in Austria. He was the son of a carpenter at Schmolln, in
Saxe-Altenberg, but though originally put to follow the same
trade, was destined to do something better with wood than
merely shape it with saw and plane. His artistic tendencies
soon manifested themselves, and after a few lessons in oil
painting from a Dresden artist, he started on the usual pilgrim-
age of the young German workman, in the course of which,
during a stay at Meissen, he found means of obtaining some
instruction in water-colour. Still working as a carpenter, he

164

KXAUFLX OP

EAFLY ITALIAN WOOD-ENGRAVING

THE START OF THE KNOFLER PRESS

moved on to Hanover, and by 1850 was in Vienna, henceforth
his home, where his opportunity at last came to him. One
day in the dinner hour he was engaged in drawing the portrait
of a fellow workman, and was seen by Professor Ritter von
Perger, who, struck with the quality of his work, advised him
to take up art as a career, and moreover promised to help him
to do so, which advice yoimg Knofler did not hesitate to follow,
and accordingly started work as a portrait-painter, to the great
disgust of his father, who refused to have anything more to
do with him. Subsequently, Professor Perger advised him to
try his hand at wood engraving, an art which was at that
time undergoing a revival in Austria. This he did, and for a
few years worked for his friend and patron the Professor, for
the Austrian State Printing Office, and, from 1856, for the
firm of Dittmarsch & Zamarski. In that year he produced
his first attempts at colour printing from wood blocks, and
soon began to make his mark in this branch, so that not long
afterwards he started business for himself, with the help of a
small hand-press which he borrowed — ^power machines have
never been used in the production of the Knofler colour prints.
One of his earliest works on his own accoimt was the series of
illustrations to an edition of Professor Fuhrich's Spiritual
Rose, depicting the sufferings of Christ. It is indeed as a
producer of religious prints that the elder Knofler is perhaps
best known, and one of his most frequent customers was the
Ratisbon ecclesiastical publisher, Pustet. Perhaps his finest
print is that of the " Madonna and Child," though one repre-
senting a window in the Votive Church at Vienna nms it very
close as a matter of artistic execution.

For a splendid folio edition of the Roman Missal, published
by Reuss at Vienna in 1861, Knofler engraved and printed a
frontispiece in gold and twelve colours, consisting of a number
of scriptural subjects in oval or circular panels, with a border of
slight leaf ornament in the style of the mediaeval MSS. There
was also another fine chromo-xylograph facing the Canon of
the Mass, the Missal itself being a good specimen of letterpress

les

COLOUR PRINTING

colour printing in red and black, with a series of two-colour
initials, the lettering of the title being in red, blue and gold.
The frontispiece was considered of sufl&cient interest and
importance to be illustrated seventeen years later, in all its
stages of production, in H. von Weissenbach's Der XyUh
graphische Farbendruck, issued at Nuremberg in 1878, in a
very limited edition. A copy of this may be seen in the
Technical Library of the St. Bride Foundation, but for some
reason or other Knofler's name was not mentioned, and
his imprint was even cut oil the blocks, which were printed
by Ludwig Lott, of Vienna. Another fine example of Knofler's
colour work was the series of twelve illustrations to F. von
Seeburg's Der Aegyptische Joseph, published by F. Pustet
at Ratisbon in 1878, which are excellent specimens of chromo-
xylography, engraved from pictures specially painted by C.
Madjera and £. Pessler.

Heinrich, the elder of the two brothers who now carry on the
business (bom in 1859), conmienced his training as a woodcut
engraver for colour work in his father's establishment in 1873,
and two years later was joined by his brother Rudolf (bom
1861). They underwent a long period of probation, although
their father's increasing infirmities soon caused them to take
a more or less active part in the business, which they took over
entirely in 1884. During the five following years they worked
for various Austrian, German and French pubUshing firms,
but for some twenty years past have chiefly confined them-
selves to the production of colour prints for a German art
publishing house. In the earlier period they did many pictures
from the designs of Professor J. Klein, including a series of
twenty forming a " Rosary," and fourteen others illustrating
" The Way of the Cross." ReUgious subjects also form the
bulk of those dealt with in the prints executed for the German
firm, and in most cases they are copied from paintings by the
Old Masters in various Italian Museums and Art Galleries,
as well as in the Royal Gallery at Dresden and the National
Gallery in London. They are reproduced entirely from wood

166

UUDOLl-- KXtlKLKk

IIKIMIICII KXOir,i:K

THE KNOFLER BROTHERS' WORK

blocks, in the colouring of the originals, and in several cases
there are two or three sizes of each. Messrs. Knofler are,
we believe, the only producers of chromo-xylographs for sale
in separate form, and very great care is taken to ensure that
they shaU be real works of art. The number of blocks used in
any one print varies from ten to a dozen, though for some
of the larger subjects, such as " The Dance of Apollo and the
Muses," fourteen or sixteen are required. The blocks are
engraved by the brothers personally, and they, like Baxter,
also give personal attention to every other detail of the work,
including the printing. For this latter operation, treadle
platen machines are generally used where small pictures are
concerned, otherwise the old hand-presses ; the size of the
prints varies from small medallions an inch in diameter to
large pictures like Professor Barabino's " Madonna," 13J x
8J inches ; or the reproduction of Fra AngeUco's " Paradise/*
in the Fine Arts Academy in Florence, which is 14^^ x 11 inches.
The three-colour operator mostly works from designs speciaUy
prepared for reproduction by that process, but the Brothers
Knofler tackle all subjects indiscriminately, and endeavour
to represent by their method the actual touches of brush or
pencil. The degree of success they have attained must be
judged from the prints themselves, but we think it will generally
be admitted that they have not fallen far, if at all, behind
their ideal.

We get some insight into the condition of the non-litho-
graphic printing arts of sixty years since from the Reports
of the Jurors at the 1851 Exhibition. They considered that
from the period of the abolition of the State Lotteries until
about 1832, colour printing fell into disuse, with the exception
of the production of official documents like patent medicine
labels and embossed postage stamps, which were still printed
at the Stamp Office by the method invented by Sir William
Congreve, and perfected by Branston and Whiting. The
latter's son continued the business, and exhibited some fine
specimens of " cameo embossing," now termed die-stamping,

167

COLOUR PRINTING

in colours. As to coloured printing inks, the Jury thought that
most of the credit for their recent improvement was due to
Mr. De la Rue, though they were of opinion that the red ink
then in use was not equal in brilliance to that of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries. A Glasgow printer, W. Mackenzie,
had invented a method of printing in two colours from the same
page of type, without lifting from the press, and some specimens
of work done by it were shown. Mr. J. S. Hodson, of Portugal
Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, exhibited a number of examples
of letterpress printing in colours, and the Exhibition Catalogue
contained several specimens of colour work, including an
example of " Typochromatic Printing," invented by Mr.
F. W. Rowney, of the London art publishing house. The
colours were applied from wood or metal, and the picture was
generally made up from them, as the usual outline block was
not used. Rowney subsequently published some " Water-
colour engravings " produced by this process, including a
series of " River Sketches " by R. P. Noble, though both
design and colouring were of a rather elementary order.
Leighton's process was represented by the publications of the
firm for which he principally worked, Cundall & Addey.

Of the numerous British firms who did colour printing from
relief surfaces during the latter part of the last century, space
will only allow a reference to a few. Messrs. Cooper, Clay &
Co., of London, produced in 1869, for Sampson Low & Co., an
edition of Gray's Elegy an a CautUry Churchyard, in imperial
octavo, illustrated by sixteen full-page plates in colours, printed
in a style which suggests that something had been borrowed
from both Leighton and Knight's methods. The colour blocks
had a rough grain, and the pictures were completed by the
printing of the outline block in black. Similar work is seen
in The Twelve Parables of Our Lord (MacmiUan, 1870), which
contains a title-page and frontispiece slightly reminiscent of
Baxter's work, as well as several other coloured illustrations
by the same firm.

So far as its style and character are concerned, one of the

16S

MISCELLANEOUS COLOUR-PRINTED BOOKS

most original examples of colour work, as applied to juvenile
books, is the facsimile reproduction for Eyre & Spottiswoode,
in 1888, of Dick Doyle's MS. account of Jack the Giant Killer,
compiled by that famous artist in 1842. There are coloured
illustrations and borders to every page, from which we can
gather that even in his boyhood's days " Dicky " was an
artist of no mean powers, and was brimful of the humour
that characterised most of his later work. The Brothers
Dalziel are not generally known to have engraved for colour
printing, but at least one work was illustrated by them in that
way, and printed at their establishment. This is Odes and
Sonnets (Routledge, 1859), which contains a nimiber of
wood engravings after Birket Foster, printed in brown, and
coloured from two tone blocks. The volume also has a series
of head and tail-pieces and ornamental initials in three colours,
as well as a half-title, frontispiece title, and general title,
these being printed in about half a dozen colours from wood
blocks. Most people will probably prefer the tinted illustra-
tions to the decorative colour work, which is not of a very high
order. A title-page of similar character, entirely printed in
colours from wood, occurs in Ann Taylor's My Mother (Part-
ridge, 1867), but the full-page coloured woodcuts are of an
altogether different type from those in the Dalziel volume ;
there being no imprint, the writer cannot say by whom the
book was produced. Walter Hay, a London machine wood
engraver, has done a lot of wonderfully good colour block work
by engraving the tints on the wood engravers' ruling machine.
Old provincial examples of colour printing are not very
plentiful, although two or three firms seem to have made a
sort of speciality of this class of work about the middle of the
last century. Among them was Binns & Goodwin of Bath,
who produced Bannister's Pictorial Geography of the Holy Land
in 1851, with every page surrounded by vari-coloured rule
borders. Books with coloured borders to the pages were rather
popular at the time, and a Liverpool typographer, David
Marples, excelled in that direction ; a good specimen of his

169

COLOUR PRINTING

work is A Bridal Gift (1847), in which the borders are really
artistic examples of pure chromo-typography. This is not mere
" combination " work, but a series of well-designed decorative
ornaments in almost infinite variety, with coloured head and
tail-pieces, initials, etc. They are frequently in two colours,
printed by successive operations, and the sectional titles are in
five tints, including black and gold; the letterpress colour
printer of to-day might gather many useful hints from this
charming little volume. Coloured border work of a very similar
character, perhaps inspired by Marples' work, occurs in Guess
if You Can (Bogue, 1851), which was printed by Vizetelly.
In Bernard's Comforts of Old Age (6th edition, Longmans, 1846)
every page is surrounded with a broad decorative border
printed in blue by E. Rogers, of Shenley, presumably the Herts
village of that name. A two-colour title was originally provided
for this volxmie, but the one ultimately adopted is in the same
style as the text pages. Adams' Oriental Text Book and
Language of Flowers (London, 184-) has the text printed by
Dean & Son in various coloured inks, every page having
a broad floral border, generaUy in one colour on a tinted
ground, so that three printings were necessary, but the inks
used for the decorative work are pale and washy, and the
designs poor. The cloth covers are printed in gold and colour,
an early example of the kind. The only other specimens
of letterpress work in colour to which space will permit
mention are those got out in the forties by M. A. Richardson,
of Newcastle-on-Tyne. A volume of Poems by the Rev.
R. C. Coxe, M.A., Vicar of Newcastle (1845), has the lettering
of the title in red, blue and black, within a woodcut border
in five colours, although one or two of these may have been
put in by hand, as was certainly the case with the colouring
of some of the ornamental initials, a few of which, however,
were printed in three colours, there being also some head and
tail-pieces in colour. According to the Preface, the work was
produced in this manner *' from a desire to encourage meri-
torious local talent, and for the credit's sake of the Provincial

170

HODSON'S " CHROMOGRAPHIC PROCESS "

Press." Thus encouraged, Richardson went a step further
in The Alien Child's Holy Christ (1846), which has a five-colour
title of similar character, and also exhibits a praiseworthy,
though not wholly successful attempt to produce, from wood
blocks, large four-colour initials of mediaeval character. Two-
colour initials are plentifully sprinkled through the pages,
as they are also in the Christmas Carol for 1847, the text of
which opens with a large red and blue initial on the lines of
those in the early Mentz Psalters. Richardson was evidently
a printer possessed of some taste and originality.

Five-and-thirty years ago the old aquatinting method had
a new lease of life, in much the same modified form, for colour
printing, as that in which Leighton used it. This was due to
Mr. Samuel J. Hodson, a well-known water-colour artist, and
son of the first Secretary to the Printers' Pension Corporation.
His " Chromographic Process " had a pedigree which might be
traced back to Leighton, to whom Hodson was apprenticed,
although when his time was up he turned his attention to
painting instead of printing. One day, long afterwards, he
met his friend Edward Wh3miper, of Alpine fame, who was
himself an artist, and worked in that capacity to illustrate
his own books as weU as those of others. He thought there
was an opening for a new colour-printing process, and broached
the subject to Hodson, knowing his past connection with that
branch of the trade. Hodson hit upon aquatint as the method
most suitable to use for the purpose, and having perfected
his adaptation of it, got out some specimen prints, of which
an excellent one, " The Village Blacksmith," produced in
thirteen colours on an " Albion " press, may be seen in
The Circling Year (1871). Soon after this the process came
under the notice of Mr. W. L. Thomas, founder of the Graphic,
and in the Christmas, 1875, number of that periodical appeared
a plate by Mr. Hodson, entitled " Missed," after a water-
colour sketch by Miss E. Thompson. From that time until
1898 Mr. Hodson, with the aid of his assistants, supplied the
blocks for all the special presentation colour plates which

171

COLOUR PRINTING

appeared in the Graphic, Many of them, such as Sir J. E.
MiUais' "Cherry Ripe" (1880). of which over half-a-miUion
copies were issued; Sir F. Leighton's "Desdemona" (1890);
Luke Fildes' portrait of H.M. the Queen (1894) and his " Shep-
herdess" (1897), and Lord Leighton's " Flaming June " (1896),
will be familiar to most readers of this volume. In the last
named, as in some other plates produced by this process, a wood
block was used to give a small part of the outlines, but most
of the prints were pure aquatints, so far as the method of pro-
ducing the blocks was concerned, the grounds being prepared
and the tones etched in the usual way, and casts taken from
the plates subsequently, for relief printing. There was a plate
for each colour, four or five being the average number used,
though sometimes as many as nine were called for. Compared
with the three-colour process that has now taken its place in the
Graphic, Mr. Hodson's method was of course slow, but whether
it in any way suffers by comparison is a matter that can safely
be left to the judgment of the artistically minded. Noble's
Colour Printing (1881) contains a detailed account of the
various processes necessary for the production, by this method,
of the coloured plates for the Christmas, 1879, number of the
Graphic,

The age of coloured book illustration in France did not
begin until the eighties, but a couple of minor examples of an
earlier period may be mentioned. An edition of De Sacy's
translation of the Four Gospels {Les Evangiles), published
by Dubochet et Cie, at Paris in 1838, was illustrated with
woodcuts and decorative borders in the fashion of Knight's
contemporary edition of the Book of Common Prayer. The
lettering of the half-title is in red and black, on a reticulated
backgroimd of " combination " character, printed in blue
and arranged in the form of a cross, surrounded by a border
also in blue. The " Sainte Veronica " frontispiece is in
black, red, gold and light brown, and faced by a very elab-
orate ornamental title-page, printed in red, blue and gold,
probably from wood blocks. The volume also contains

172

FRENCH LETTERPRESS WORK IN COLOUR

several other sectional titles in red, blue and black. An
edition of De Genoude's French translation of The ImitaHon
of Jesus Christ, published at Paris in 1840, has the first title,
of pictorial design, printed in brown and black, and a niunber
of woodcuts printed in black and surrounded with an emble-
matic border in brown are scattered through the volume,
which is conceived much on the same lines as the Gospels
just referred to.

173

CHAPTER VII
CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY

Section I

FROM THE INVENTION OF THE ART TO 1850

HE art of lithography, invented by John
Aloysius Senefelder, of Munich, in 1796,
depends upon a very simple principle,
viz., the attraction which calcareous
stone has for water and greasy sub-
stances, and the want of affinity between
the two latter. A slab of this stone
having been duly polished and pre-
pared, is written or drawn upon with, for example, a
crayon in which the colouring medium is mixed with fatty
or greasy materials ; a damp roller being then passed over
the stone, the surface of the latter absorbs the moisture,
which is, however, repelled by the greasy lines of the design.
A roller charged with a greasy ink being next passed over the
stone, the ink is repeUed from the damp surface, but taken
up by the lines of the design, and by them transferred by
pressure to a sheet of paper, in the form of a copy of that
design. The principles which govern the art of producing
pictures by chromo-lithography are the same as those which
apply in the case of chromo- xylography , i.e. , the complete design
being first prepared, and the number of tints in which it shall
be reproduced decided upon, that portion of it which is to be
in a particular colour is drawn on the surface of a litho stone,
and so on with the other colours, each on a different stone,
the print being built up by the successive impressions from
the colour stones. The use of coloured, in place of black,
ink in lithography dates from the early years of the process,
which was introduced into England in 1800 by the inventor

174

FIRST ATTEMPTS AT COLOUR LITHOGRAPHY

himself, and a coUection of facsimiles of drawings produced
by it published in London in 1803, under the title of Specimens
of Poly autography. One or two of these are printed in the
so-called " Bartolozzi " red tint, but the first lithographed
publication of any importance in which coloured inks were
used was probably the reproduction at Munich, in 1808, by
Strixner & Piloty (perhaps under Senefelder's superinten-
dence) of the illustrations drawn by Durer in 1515 on the
margins of a Prayer Book in the Royal Library at Munich,
formerly belonging to the Emperor Maximilian I {AU^ecfU
Durer* s ChrisUich — Mythologische Handzeichnungen). Each
of the pages reproduced — ^the text was not included — ^was in a
coloured ink in facsimile of the original, green, purple, sepia,
puce, etc. When Rudolf Ackermann (1764-1834), who may
be regarded as the real populariser of lithography in England,
started his Lithographic Press in London in 1817, a facsimile
of the Munich volimie of 1808 was its first important produc-
tion. In this the title-page, and also a page of the text of
the Prayer Book, prepared specially for this edition, were
printed in red and black. In 1908 a complete edition of the
work was published at Munich by F. Bruckmann, the repro-
ductions being made by photo-Uthography, and printed in
from four to eleven tints. Some of the drawings are by Lucas
Cranach, and facsimiles of these were issued as a separate
volume at Munich in 1818, also printed in tinted inks, a couple of
pages being in two colours. A little volume produced at
Munich in 1809, by Senefelder, contains some maps illustrating
the boundaries of Bavaria at different periods, the frontiers
being indicated by thick lines printed in red and blue, but
this is rather a poor effort of the chromo-lithographic art. In
the Print Room at the British Museum is an early nineteenth
century lithograph of a beggar, with the outlines printed in
three or four colours, apparently at a single impression, the
inking being done by hand, but the experiment does not seem
to have been repeated.
A very early — possibly the earliest — ^lithographic printer

175

COLOUR PRINTING

to produce decorative designs in several colours was J. A.
Barth, of Breslau. As early as 1811 he issued some litho-
graphed illustrations coloured by hand, and in 1816 produced
the first edition of a work entitled Pacts MonumetUum —
a polyglot record of the main facts connected with the Peace
of 1815. This is a folio volume, in which many pages of
the text are surrounded by an ornamental border printed
in a single colour, but more probably from wood or metal sur-
faces than from stone. A second edition was published in
1818, and on this occasion the printer replaced the borders in
monochrome by others lithographed in several tints, five or
six in some cases. The colours are laid on flat, as usual in
early examples of chromo-lithography, and the register is not
particularly good, though the colours are bright ; a circular
design on the titie-page is printed in brown on green, with
four gold stars above it. According to a passage in the Preface,
the coloured borders in this volume exhibit the results of an
attempt at printing in colours entirely from stone, without
any subsequent retouching by hand {qua Uihographus sine uUo
penictUi adjumento figuras color atus efficeret). Some of the
pages have head-pieces only, but still printed in colours.
Artistically considered, the designs are rather crude, but
their position in relation to the history of colour printing
gives them a special interest. This appears to have been an
entirely independent effort, and as such stands alone.

The common method of producing colour effect in litho-
graphy, for the first thirty years or so of the last century, was
probably suggested by the old chiaroscuro prints, the outlines
being printed in black on a coloured ground, which had the
lights scraped out, although in some instances the ground was
solid and the lights indicated on the print by hand in Chinese
white. In this way a three-colour picture was produced by two
printings. An early example of what may thus be termed the
chiaroscuro lithograph is the portrait of Senefelder which
appears in his Complete Course of Lithography, published in
Germany and England (London, R. Ackermann) in 1818-19.

176

EARLY COLOUR LITHOGRAPHS

This is in black and brown, and the same volume contains a
facsimile, in red, blue and black, of an initial in one of the early
Mentz Psalters. Several references to the possibility of print-
ing pictures in colours from stone, in imitation of oil paintings,
were made by Senefelder in the work in question, but the idea
does not seem to have been carried out in practice at that period,
the chiaroscuro eifect being preferred, no doubt owing to its
simplicity and comparative cheapness. The coloured ground
was most commonly of a lemon tint, though what is now often
called a Rembrandtesque eifect was obtained by using a
pinkish tone. Engelmann (1788-1839) did this at Paris in the
early twenties ; three-colour work was also practised as early
as 1820, a black print on a toned ground being sepia-tinted
in the shadows from a third stone. Some of the finest examples
of tint work in lithography are to be seen in the series of
reproductions {Die SamnUung, etc.) of pictures in the Munich
Royal GaUeries, that was produced in thirty-eight parts
from 1820 onwards for a number of years, under the direction
of J. N. Strixner, some of the plates being lithographed by
himself, thoiigh the printer of most of them was B. Bemer.
In these the tint does not cover the whole of the background,
but only where it will produce a particular effect, parts of '
the surface being left uncoloured ; even in some of the later
prints of this series the high lights are indicated by hand with
a brush. These methods of producing coloured, or rather
tinted pictures, by printing lithographic designs on black
on a coloured ground, were described and illustrated by
C. J. Hullmandel in his Art of Drawing upon Stone (London,
1824), and by Engelmann — ^in whose studio Hullmandel
had perfected his knowledge — in the Manuel du Dessinaieur
Lithographe, published in Paris about the same time.

Chromo-lithography properly so called, as distinguished
from the black-and-tint work just alluded to, may be con-
sidered to date from the issue of the Pacis Monutnentum.
The next experimenter in this direction seems to have been
Franz Weishaupt, of Munich, who prepared in 1822 about

177

12— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

sixty botanical plates, lithographed in colours, to illustrate
a work on Brazil by Martius and Spix. Hitherto, the Bavarian
capital had carried of! most of the honours in connection with
the production of lithographs in colours, but probably the
finest exemplification of pure chromo-lithography in the
twenties occurs in the plates for the early parts of Wilhelm
Zahn's splendid work on the remains of ancient pictorial
art discovered in the buried cities of Campania, Die Schdnsten
OrnamenU und Merkwiirdigsten Gemalde aus Pampeji, Herku-
lanum und Stabia. This is a very large folio, the pages measur-
ing about 24 X 90 inches, and the three volumes of which
it consists were over thirty years in passing through the
press, the first few parts being published in 1828, and the last
in 1859. All the plates are not in colours, but the task of
printing those that are was apparently divided amongst
several lithographic houses, including J. Storck, C. Hilde-
brandt, C. G. Herwig, and the Prussian State Printing Office.
They reproduce, in the colours of the originals, wall paintings,
friezes, mosaics, etc., four or five tints being usually employed ;
the title of the first volume is printed in red, and surrounded
by an ornamental border in colours, the imprint being '' In
fathengedruckt in dem LiOwgr. InstittU von J. Storck." The
same lithographer produced most of the plates in the early
parts, as Hildebrandt's name does not appear imtil Part 63
is reached (1829). Here and there, where small or narrow
patches of colour had to be applied, we find some hand-work,
but, speaking generally, it may be said that the colour plates
are genuine chromo-lithographs. The art of printing blended
or superimposed colours from stone belongs to a later period,
and hence we find that these Berlin pictures are coloured by
plain flat, solid tints, including black when necessary. Stippled
lithographs in colours were also rare at this time, and there
is only one such in the first volume of Zahn's work, although
there are several in the second, which was completed in 1842,
one being by H. Delinsand, another by Hildebrandt. The
latter was also engaged in the production of the colour plates

178

OLD THREE-COLOUR LITHOGRAPHY

for C. H. von Gelbke's Abbildungen der Wappen Saemmtlicher
Eufopalischen Souveraine, a work on the Armorial bearings of
the various European States (Berlin, G. Reimer, 1832). These
are mostly in five or six tints, though in a few cases more are
used, and in some instances gold and silver was applied from
the stone to give a correct rendering of the quarterings, etc.
A little hand-touching is visible, but there is less reliance on it
than in most of the earlier examples of the chromo-lithographic
art.

The possibility of producing coloured pictures by the adap-
tation of the three primary colour process to lithography
received attention in the thirties, at the hands of Henry
Weishaupt, of Munich, and others, but the result was not
considered satisfactory, probably owing to a want of trans-
parency in the inks, and as more than three colours were
generally used in chromo-lithographs even at that time, the
tendency ultimately was rather to increase the number of
colour stones than to confine it to a series of three. F. M.
Hessemer's work on — Arabische und Alt Italienische — decora-
tive art (Berlin, 1842), contains 120 plates lithographed in
colours by H. Delins, but there is nothing remarkable about
any of them, nor are they improved by being printed on thin
paper, unmounted.

It will be seen that Germany led the way in chromo-litho-
graphy, as in most other branches of the graphic arts. We
have now to consider French work. The first permanent
lithographic printing establishment in Paris was opened by
Godefroi Engelmann about 1816, the Comte C. P. de Lasteyrie
du Saillant starting another a few months later, under the
auspices of Louis XVIII. The Comte is said to have experi-
mented in colour work almost from the first, and produced
some reproductions of Greek vase paintings in two colours,
red and black, but Engelmann does not seem to have done
much in this line for some years. Originally a designer in
his native town of Mulhouse, family misfortunes compelled
him to seek a living elsewhere, and he acquired a knowledge

179

COLOUR PRINTING

of lithography at Munich in 1814, subsequently putting that
knowledge into practice for a year or so at Mtdhouse, before
going to Paris. As early as 1828, the Soci6t6 d'Encouragement
pour rindustrie Nationale at Paris had offered a prize of
2,000 francs for the invention of a practical method of printing
pictures in colours by means of lithography, but whether
claimed or not, it had not been awarded to anyone prior to
the time when Engelmann started his experiments in that hne
in the thirties. By the latter part of 1836 he had brought
his process to a tolerable degree of perfection, and patriotically
decided to communicate the particulars of his success to the
Soci£t6 Industrielle du Mulhouse (which is still to the front
in encouraging art and industry), of which he was a member.
His letter was read at a general meeting of the Society held
on December 21st, when several specimens of his work were
exhibited, and on January 15th, 1837, Engelmann obtained
a French patent for ten years for his invention, to which he
gave its present name of chromo-lithography. Having
thus secured his right to exclusively operate the process,
there was no longer any danger in making the details pubhc,
and accordingly some members of the Soci6t6 d'Encourage-
ment, constituting a committee to examine the merits of
his invention, were permitted to see his methods in operation,
and to pull a few impressions themselves. Their report
being satisfactory, Engelmann was awarded the long stand-
ing prize of ^fSO. In order that the value of his invention
might be similarly recognised by the Mulhouse Society, several
members of its Fine Arts Committee were likewise allowed
to see his lithographic colour printing process in operation.
The Conunittee's report on the subject was read at a meeting
of the Society held on March 29th, 1837, and must have been
a very satisfactory one from Engelmann's point of view, the
utility and importance of the invention being strongly dwelt
upon by those who had had the advantage of seeing it at
work. The Society, however, waited until June of the follow-
ing year before giving effect to its Committee's opinion, so

180

CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY ESTABLISHED

as to be satisfied that there was no hitch in the commercial
development of the process, and on the 13th of that month
decided to present Engehnann with a gold medal.

Although that well-known lithographer no doubt made valu-
able improvements in the process of producing coloured pictures
by lithographic methods, there is not really much more than
these, and the invention of the name of this branch of art,
that can be justly attributed to him, seeing that prints litho-
graphed in colours had been produced in Germany many years
prior to his entering the field. His colour printing department
was at first on a very small scale, only a couple of men being
employed, each of which could turn out 100 quarto pictures
per day. It is almost needless to say that only hand-presses
were used in his establishment, as litho machines were not
introduced until the fifties. He seems, however, to have
designed special presses for his colour work, and illustrations
of them will be found in his Traite de Liihograpkie, published
at Mulhouse by his son Jean in 1840, the year following the
elder Engelmann's death. The title-page of this volume is
printed in colours by his process, but is anything but a note-
worthy example of chromo-lithography ; in fact, the firm's
finest work in this direction is due to the son, who took an
expert lithographer, Aug. Graf, into partnership, and from
the forties onwards produced chromo-lithpgraphic plates
of a high order. An excellent example is the series pre-
pared for the French Government in 1845, illustrating the
paintings in the Church of St. Savin in Poitou. The old
flat-tint method has here practically disappeared, and re-
placed by a judicious blending of colours that foreshadowed
the coming of the present t)rpe of chromo-lithography,
although the colouring is somewhat faint and cloudy. The
earliest French book, illustrated by chromo-lithography,
which could in any way be compared with Owen Jones*
Alkatnbra, was Lacroix & Seres' Le Moyen Age, published
in five quarto volumes in 1848-51.

We have now briefly traced the process of printing lithographs

181

COLOUR PRINTING

in colours down to the Victorian era, but it must not
be supposed that the multi-colour print promptly displaced
the old black-and-tint work, or even the ordinary black-and-
white print. On the contrary, the majority of press-coloured
lithographs in the thirties and forties are of the black-and-tint
type, the lemon or salmon-coloured ground being almost a
distinguishing feature of this period. Hand-coloured lithos
are even commoner still, this method being often employed
on prints of the black-and-tint species. The various isolated
attempts to establish lithography on a firm footing in England,
that had been made from 1800 to 1815 by Senefelder, Andr^,
Bankes and others, had all ended in failure, and it was of
course left to the ubiquitous German {i,e., Ackermann) to do
what the native practitioners had not succeeded in. But
after the first few years, Ackermann's publishing interests
developed in other directions, most of his books being illustrated
not with lithographs, but with aquatints or steel engravings.
By the twenties, however, the conmiercial as well as the
artistic advantages of lithography had come to be — albeit
somewhat tardily — ^recognised in England, and so the art
was being practised as a business, though only on a small
scale, by several firms. The earliest of these seems to have
been that founded by Charles Joseph HuUmandel (1789-1850),
the first English-bom lithographer who attained to any
degree of note in that trade. He learned the details of the
art in Germany, and started work on his own account in
London as early as 1818. The artistic side of lithography
appealed more to HuUmandeFs instincts than the utilitarian,
the latter being handled by an ex-law writer, William Day,
who commenced business in Great Queen Street, Lincoln's
Inn Fields, about 1823, afterwards removing to Gate Street,
hard by. Chromo-lithography was still in the womb of the
future at this period, so far as England was concerned at any
rate, and neither Day or Hullmandel seem to have made any
serious essays in that direction, it being left to two outsiders
to lead the way. The first of these was Thomas De la Rue,

182

OWEN JONES, CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHER

a member of a well-known London printing firm, who patented
in 1832 a process of printing playing-cards in oil colours by
lithography, in place of the old method of stencilling them.
His specification goes into a great deal of elaborate detail,
the text being elucidated by sixteen sheets of drawings. He
secured correct register by means of pins and point-holes,
the former of which were at the comers of a steel plate laid
over the sheet to be printed, the latter being in the stones
themselves. De la Rue, being more interested in the produc-
tion of playing-cards than in the development of colour litho-
graphy, mentions that wood or metal surfaces could be used
in place of stones, for the purpose of appl3dng the colours.
He used strong, quick-drying inks, boiled with linseed oil.
Chromo-lithography, although thus debased, on its first
formal introduction to this coimtry, to provide for the needs of
the gambler or card-sharper, was yet destined to rise to higher
things, through the enthusiasm of a man who had no connection
with the trade at all, viz., Owen Jones (1809-1874). He
was a London Welshman, who, after being educated at the
Charterhouse and elsewhere, was apprenticed in 1825 to
Vulliamy, the architect, and remained with him for five years.
He then followed the example of the German art student,
and wandered in many lands, sketching and picking up all
sorts of ideas and motifs on decoration, which in after years
he turned to good account. In 1834 he was in Spain, in com-
pany with a friend of his, Jules Goury, and seems to have
been particularly struck with the then neglected architectural
glories of the old Moorish palace at Granada, so well known
as the Alhambra, a large part of which had been destroyed
long before by one of the Spanish Sovereigns, whose architect
replaced several of its halls and courts by an ugly Renaissance
building of his own design. What remained — and fortunately
still remains — of the original structure furnished Jones with
a wealth of decorative detail, which he was not slow to
utilise, as he determined to do for the Alhambra what Murphy
had done many years before for the great Portuguese fane

183

COLOUR PRINTING

at Batalha, i.e., prepare an absolutely exhaustive illustrated
monograph upon it. In his Arabian Antiquities of Spain,
Murphy had also treated of the Alhambra, but the blaze
of colour on its walls and ceilings could in no wise be realised
from the line engravings with which that work was illustrated.
So Jones set to work with pencil and brush, and copied most
of the finest detail in the size and colour of the original ;
whilst so engaged, his friend Goury died of cholera, and
though his work was still unfinished, the untoward event so
disturbed Jones that he abandoned his painting and sketch-
ing and returned to England. Arrived there, he set about
arranging his drawings with a view to preparing the plates
for his proposed great work. What led him to choose litho-
graphy as his productive method cannot now be certainly
known ; possibly he had heard of, or seen, what was being
done on the Continent by that art in the way of colour work,
although it must not be forgotten that in 1835 there was,
except Baxter (then comparatively unknown), no colour
printer in London save De la Rue. Jones made proposals
to the few lithographers there, but with the exception of Day
the intricacy and magnitude of the task appalled them, and
they professed themselves unable to do the work. Some years
previously, Day had had the advantage of securing the services
of a young Belgian artist, Louis Haghe (1806-85), who speedily
made a name for himself, not merely in the trade but in the
world of art, by his spirited renderings on the stone of pictures
of Continental life and architecture. But as Day's firm was
probably not in a position to do the whole of the work required,
Jones resolved to set up a lithographic printing establishment
on his own account, at his residence in John Street, Adelphi.
He purchased presses, stones, inks and all the other necessary
materials and engaged a staff of competent workmen. These
preliminaries being settled, the work was put in hand, and by
March, 1836, nearly a year before Engelmann, the self-styled
inventor of chromo-lithography, took out his patent, that
art had made its debut in England, through the medium of

184

THE FIRST ENGLISH CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY

some of the illustrations for Jones's Plans, Elevations, Sections
and Details of the Alhambra. Though conceived and carried
out on a magnificent scale (many of the plates are 28 x 16
inches) it can hardly be said that this is an interesting work
from an artistic point of view. The inclusion of a few interior
and exterior views, in colour perspective, would probably
have greatly assisted the sale of the book, but as it was it
turned out a comparative failure. Many of the illustrations
are line engravings, but much of the colour detail was repre-
sented in facsimile by chromo-lithography, six or seven tints
being used as a rule; except in the shadows, the colouring
was usually applied flat, as the nature of the work did not
call for any other mode of treatment. Much of the mural
decoration of the Alhambra is elaborately gilded, but this
in no wise disconcerted Jones or Day, who printed gold
by lithographic methods with the same facility as other
Uthographers printed black.

This was almost a new branch of the printing art in England,
as hardly anything of the kind had been done before by any
method, and so calls for some attention here. A little volume
published in the Spring of 1818 in connection with the death
of the Princess Charlotte (The BeauHes of Sincerity) had four
lines on its title-page printed in gold, a circumstance which
was thought of such importance as to warrant it being specially
mentioned, on the label on the front cover, that " The prominent
parts of the Title of this Volume are printed in Gold." The
printer was W. Clowes, now a familiar name in the trade, but
a greater than he — ^in the exposition of the art of printing in
gold — arose in the person of John Whittaker, a Westminster
bookbinder, who made use of the process of stereotyping,
which had not long before (1804) been introduced by Earl
Stanhope — the inventor of the press which bears his name —
in conjunction with Andrew Wilson. Whittaker was rather a
gold blocker than a printer, as he used heated stereo plates
to apply his gold to the sheet, but his work is of too remarkable
a character to be passed over here. It finds its earliest public

185

COLOUR PRINTING

expression in a splendid reprint of the text of Magna Charta,
issued about 1816. George Ill's copy is in the British Museum,
a gorgeously produced folio, in which the text is printed in
gold on sheets of extraordinarily thick vellum, which are,
however, heavily embossed on the back. A good deal of
decorative ornament is supplied by hand — the hand of John
Harris, whose skill in imitating ancient lettering and miniature
painting was almost unrivalled. The Society of Arts was so
impressed with Whittaker's work that the Secretary informed
him that a premium would be awarded for it, subject to the
usual condition, viz., that particulars of the modus operandi
were communicated. This, however, Whittaker declined to do,
preferring instead to keep his methods secret, and it was
not until after his death that his faithful helper, Harris, dis-
closed the details. Whittaker's art has its best exemplification
in that magnificent volume. The Ceremonial of the Coronation
of His Most Sacred Majesty, King George the Fourth, published
in 1822. So far as Whittaker was concerned, it may be
described as a large paper edition of his own gold letterpress
work, the ample margins of the huge folio pages being filled
with pictures illustrating the personages and costumes seen at
the Coronation. In the writer's copy these are missing, but
Whittaker's work is intact. On that part of the leaf which
was intended to receive the impression in gold (the text is
mainly a list of persons who walked in the procession) a solid
ground tint, usually cream, scarlet or dark blue, was first
laid down, and then apparently treated with some glair6
mixture, in order to " fix " the gold. Great pressure was
used in applying this latter, as notwithstanding that the
material of the leaves is stout cardboard, the back is strongly
embossed. Each leaf is ensigned by the Crown and other
regal emblems, also blocked in gold, occasionally against a
faintly tinted background, and there is a gold-line border
round each page, with floral ornament in the upper comers,
likewise in gold. In spite of the gorgeousness of their " get-
up," few of the pages are really effective in appearance, owing

186

PRINTING IN GOLD

largely to the way in which the text, mostly in plain roman
letter, is crowded upon them. The title-page, in which the
engraved text is arranged in a circle surrounded with the collar
and pendant of the Order of St. George, is perhaps the best.
It is followed by a pictorial one, in which is represented the
regalia on the Altar at the Abbey ; in this the gold is blocked
on a background made up of six different colours, scarlet,
blue, purple, black, cream and green, but from a decorative
standpoint it is a page that could have emanated from the
brain of no one else but a bookbinder, being overloaded with
tawdry and wretchedly designed ornament, much of which
appears to have been applied from bookbinders' " tools," no
doubt some of Whittaker's stock-in-trade. On the third page
is a large historiated initial A, in gold on a red ground, which
lends an appearance of dignity to the commencement of the
text.

De la Rue's firm also printed in gold, and about 1830
produced for Balne, a London publisher, an edition of twenty-
five special copies of the New Testament, which were printed
throughout in gold. The same firm also gilded — Clowes
printed — ^the Coronation number of the Sun newspaper (June,
1838), the text of which was rubbed over with a mixture of
varnish and gold-size whilst the sheets were still wet from the
press, and bronze powder then applied. Printing in gold has
since become too common to call for further attention, though
it may be mentioned that an edition of the Golden Gospel
(St. John's), with a lengthy introduction by J. R. Macduff,
D.D., was produced entirely in gold, by Marcus Ward & Co.,
of Belfast, in 1885. A process of printing visiting cards, etc.,
in gold from engraved copper plates was introduced about
1830 by a foreigner named Sturz, but was soon abandoned as
being too expensive.

From this digression we return to Jones's Alhambra. This
work was published in two volumes, the first of which — con-
sisting of ten parts — was completed in 1842, and cost £12 10s.
on small, and £21 on large paper. It is curious that French

187

COLOUR PRINTING

sizes of paper were used, viz., " Grande Aigle " and " Colom-
bier." Volume II, Details of Ornaments, finished in 1845, was
in two parts, issued at from £3 3s. to £5 5s. each, according to
size. For the material of many of the prints it contained,
Jones had to make a second journey to Granada in 1837, in
order to complete the task which Goury's death had caused
him to leave unfinished.

Engelmann was allowed to remain in possession of his
proprietary name of " Chromo-lithography," as designating
the process of printing in colours by a planographic method,
both Jones and Day simply saying that the pictures in the
Alhambra were " Printed in colours by Day and Haghe "
or by Owen Jones, as the case might be, the latter usually pre-
fixing " Drawn, lithographed and published by." A point
of special interest about the work is the fact that Jones printed
many of his coloured lithographs from zinc. The emplo}nnent
of plates of this or some other metal, in place of stone, had
been suggested by Senef elder himself as early as 1801, in his
English Patent Specification, and some thirty years later this
old idea was re-patented, and the process operated by Chapman
& Co., of Comhill, an example of whose lithography from zinc
will be ioxmd in the first volimie of the Railway Magazine
(1835). in 1840, another London firm. Davis & Hills,
produced by zincography a series of prints of the caricature
order, for Tregear, a Cheapside publisher.

Chromo-lithography having thus been successfully inau-
gurated in England by Jones, he continued to operate his
lithographic printing establishment in the Adelphi (later on
he moved to ArgyU Place, Regent Street) for many years
after the Alhambra plates had been completed, and produced
coloured lithographic illustrations, and sometimes complete
books, for various London publishers. His special Une was
what was — and still is — known as the " illuminated " book,
from the resemblance of the decorative parts to (many of the
details were in fact often taken from) those so often seen in
ancient MSS., in which, as well as in these modem imitations,

ISS

EARLY ENGLISH CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY

gold and colour were profusely used. Longmans were very
good customers of Jones for this sort of thing, and a few ex-
amples may be mentioned. One of the first was The Prism
of Imagination (1844), a collection of tales, in which every
page was surrounded by an ornamental border printed in colour
or in gold. There were separate titles to each tale, printed
in gold and colours, as was also the opening page of the tale ;
the illustrations were in black-and-tint, although one, " The
Miniature," was in blue, black and brown, within a border
partly printed in gold. A more finished style of work is seen
in the eight separate title-pages Jones did for Murray's 1845
edition of the Book of Common Prayer, printed by Vizetelly
as already mentioned, and the illuminated books proper may
be dated from the same period. One of the best, if not indeed
the best, is H. Noel Humphreys' Illuminated Books of the
Middle Ages (Longmans), the production of the plates for
which extended from 1844 to 1849. They are magnificent
pieces of colour printing, representing specimen pages of MSS.
from the fourth to the seventeenth centuries, and according
to the title-page, were " executed on stone, and printed in
[gold, silver and] colours by Owen Jones." This, however,
is not strictly correct, as some of the plates were " printed
in colours by C. Graf." This was probably the man who,
with M. Coindet, represented Engelmann in London from
1826 to 1890. Although Engelmann thought him a poor
business man, he seems to have been a very good colour
lithographer, and imitated Jones in producing work of the
" illuminated " character, with much gold, gothic lettering,
and floral ornament in colours. One plate in Humphreys'
book, representing a page from a MS. Chronicle executed for
Edward IV, was " printed by Quinet's chromo-lithography,"
though it also bore the imprint of " Day & Haghe, litho-
graphers to the Queen." Some of the pages in this grand
volume are of exceptional beauty, such, for example, as the
reproduction of a page from the Hours of the Due de Berri,
a veritable triumph of the colour printer's art. Two other

189

COLOUR PRINTING

•

works, illustrated by Day & Haghe at this period, though
on a more modest scale, may also be referred to. The first
is Essex's lUustraHons . . , of the Temple Church, London,
published by Weale in 1845, in which there is a number of
plates depicting the mural decorations in the colours of the
originals, and also one of the altar-piece in gold and colours,
this latter being lithographed at Jones's establishment in
Argyll Place. For Lieutenant-Colonel Sleeman's Rambles
and Recollections of an Indian Official (London, 1844), Day
& Haghe did a considerable number of chromo-lithographic
plates, including several reproductions of miniatures, an inch
or less in diameter, but all printed in colours.

Of the smaller illuminated books. The Sermon on the Mount
(1845) is a good specimen ; the text is in black letter, with
coloured initials, the larger of which are on a gold ground.
Each page of text is within a floral border of varjdng design,
printed in colours, often against a solid gold background.
On the first page there are only a few words of letterpress, the
rest of the space within the border being occupied by an
illustration, which was coloured by hand in tints to harmonise
with the presswork. From 1845 onwards, for several years,
Longmans issued an " Illuminated Calendar," the decorative
elements of which were copied from some notable mediaeval
MS. The Hours of Anne of Brittany furnished those of
the Calendar for 1845, in which the floral borders were litho-
graphed in colours by Jones, but the miniatures had only
the outlines printed, and were then coloured by hand. In
the Calendar for 1846, however, these latter were lithographed
in colours. The Calendar for 1848, in which the illuminations
were based on those in the fourteenth century Hours of the
Duke of Anjou, in the Royal Library at Paris, is a beautiful
example of colour printing, in several respects. Noel
Himiphreys wrote a preface and introduction, and this part
of the volume is printed in large gothic type, in red and black,
the calendar following being in the same style, but set in smaller
type. The appearance of this part of the work suggests that

190

COLOUR WORK OF THE KELMSCOTT PRESS

the Chiswick Press did it, but there is no imprint to either the
letterpress or lithographic sections of the volume, though the
latter was possibly the work of Jones. Even the cover of the
book is decorated in gold and colours. Many people are apt
to think that the modern *' Book Beautiful " originated with
the late Wm. Morris, of Kelmscott Press fame, but he was
still a child when men like H. Noel Humphreys, H. Shaw and
Owen Jones were producing such books, taking, as Morris did,
old examples for their models. It is true that when Morris
started his Press the output of these Early Victorian illimiinated
books had long ceased, and that his own books were more
remarkable for beauty of typography than for colour decoration,
but nevertheless Morris was, in some degree at least, more of
a follower than a leader.

The little colour that occurs in the productions of the
Kelmscott Press is in the text. In several cases, the Chaucer
for example, and the RecuyeU of the Histories of Troye, headings
or other passages are printed in red, whilst in a few instances
three colours appear. The first work in which they were used
was the Latides Beatce Marice Virginis (1896), in which the
headings are in red, the woodcut initials with which each
sentence opens being alternately in black and blue.

In practically all the illimiinated books, the leaves are
composed of stout cardboard, perhaps because better register
for colours could be secured on thick heavy material of this
kind than on flimsy sheets of paper. But the very rigidity
of the leaves made it difficult to bind them, as when they were
stitched together, their own weight and stiffness pulled the
stitches out. In this dilemma — as in many others — ^a man
of evil counsel was not wanting, and in this case the tempter
was one Hancock. This individual invented and patented
in the late thirties a process which was intended to do away
altogether with the thread stitching by which, from time
immemorial — in the absence of those modem abominations,
wire and staple — ^the leaves of books had been attached to
their covers. This was effected by a solution of caoutchouc,

191

COLOUR PRINTING

by which the inner edges of the leaves were united to the
flexible back of the volume. Judging from the multitude
of books, from the Keepsake of 1839 onwards, that were
" bound " by this means, the method was a success for the
time being, but as years rolled on the moisture in the solution
evaporated, leaving the residuum of caoutchouc in the form
of a dry powder, so that the leaves become detached almost
at a touch. Hence many of the illuminated colour books
of the forties and fifties are found with the leaves loose, and
their edges dirty and frayed in consequence.

In 1849, Jones produced for Longmans a charming little
edition of the Matrimonial Office in the Book of Common
Prayer, with the text in gothic type as usual, printed in red
and black within decorative borders in gold and colours.
In its original binding of cream-coloured leather, embossed
in gold with a design of the Alhambra type, this is one of the
most beautiful little volumes of its kind. In the same year
appeared an '' illuminated edition " of EcclesiasUs, or the
Preacher, a folio volume in which the text, still in red and
black gothic type, was of a much bolder cast, the border being
in many pages relegated to second place amongst the decorative
elements of the book. Material for these latter was often
provided by ancient MSS. in Jones's own possession, the
pages of practically all his black-letter books being designed
on the old lines. This particular volume was enclosed in
massive wooden covers, stained black, and carved in high
relief with a leaf pattern ; each of these covers is ^ inch thick,
and the printed part of the book being only about ^ inch,
furnished little more than a fifth of the bulk of the volume.

This was essentially the age of the decorative " publisher's "
binding, as distinguished from the hand-tooled variety which
is " collected," and many of the works Jones did for Longmans
are enclosed in such. In 1846 Jones had produced for
Longmans an illimiinated edition of Gray's Elegy, in which,
as the text is short, the greater part of the pages was taken
up with border decoration. It was bound in yellowish-brown

192

SOME ENGLISH COLOURED BOOKS

leather, embossed in high relief with a floral design, and is
in all respects a very handsome volume. Flowers and their
Kindred Thoughts (1848) and the companion volume, Fruits
from the Garden and Field (1850), are uniformly bound in
thick bevelled boards, covered with light oak-coloured leather,
stamped in blind with the title, surrounded by an appro-
priate floral design. In both volimies the text is in large
gothic lettering, printed in gold, and the coloured plates which
alternate with the text pages show pure chromo-lithography,
the blending of the colours to simulate the tints of nature
being skilfuUy carried out. With their production, the first
chapter in the history of English chromo-lithography, so far
as Jones was concerned, may be considered closed, as the
important part of decorative artist which he was called upon
to play, first for the Great Exhibition building of 1851 and
afterwards for its partly transplanted successor at Sydenham
in 1854, took up most of his time for the next few years.

But even if we consider him as facile princeps in the intro-
duction of the art, other lithographers followed him up
pretty closely, at least from the forties. At a still earlier
period, the ordinary black and white lithographic print was
sometimes entirely overlaid with hand-colouring, as dis-
tinguished from the mere tinting of an ordinary black-and-tint
picture. There are some good examples of this in The Sacred
Annual for 1834, which is otherwise interesting from the
colour printer's point of view, the illuminated title-page being
printed in red, blue and gold from relief surfaces, a tiny circular
panel in the centre enclosing a hand-painted head of Christ.
The sheets of tissue that protect the coloured pictures have
printed on them, within a floral wreath, and in brown or yellow
ink, the particular passage of the text which is illustrated.

HuUmandel was never a great worker in the field of colour
lithography, though his prints in volumes like Harding's
Portfolio (1837) show that he could on occasion improve
upon the ordinary black-and-tint style of the day. But a
better draughtsman than Harding was destined to give him

193

13— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

his chance, Thomas Shotter Boys to wit, whose series of
architectural and other studies are not nearly so well known
as they deserve to be. One of the best of them is the folio
volume of Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp,
Rouen, etc. (1839). In the *' Descriptive Notice " prefixed
to this, it was stated that " the present work being unique
of its kind, and the process by which it is produced being
entirely new to the public, some account of the means em-
ployed " was felt desirable. Accordingly the pubhsher pointed
out that " the whole of the drawings composing this volume
are produced entirely by means of Uthography, they are printed
in oil colours, and come from the press precisely as they now
appear. It was expressly stipulated . . . that not a touch
should be added afterwards, and this injunction has been
strictly adhered to. They are pictures drawn on stone and
reproduced by printing in colours, every touch is the work
of the artist, and every impression the product of the press.
This is the first, and as yet the only attempt to imitate pictorial
effects of landscape architecture in chromo-lithography, and
in its application to this class of subjects, it has been carried
so far beyond what was required in copying polychrome
architecture, hieroglyphics, arabesques, etc., that it has be-
come almost a new art." This latter paragraph was evidently
aimed at Jones's methods, and the publisher was at the pains
to explain wherein lay the difference between them and those
of Hullmandel. " In mere decorative subjects," he said,
" the colours are positive and opaque, the tints flat, and the
several hues of equal intensity throughout, whereas in these
views the various effects of light and shade, of local colour
and general tone, result from transparent and graduated tints."
This gives such an excellent account of the difference between
the old and the new processes of lithographing in colours,
that we need add nothing to it. The volume under notice,
therefore, may be taken as the first published in England
containing chromo-lithographic pictures in anything like the
modem sense of the term. Thus Hullmandel may be looked

ld4

HULLMANDEL AS A COLOUR PRINTER

upon as the inventor, or at any rate the introducer, of the
art in this country. It must not, however, be understood
from this remark that high-class chromo-lithographic pictures,
such as we see produced at the present day, wiU be found in
the book in question. HuUmandel's idea was evidently
rather to reproduce by mechanical means the hand-colouring
so often seen on early Uthographs ; on the coloured sets
of David Roberts' Picturesque Sketches in Spain, for example.
This was, in effect, merely a means of indicating by tints
the relative degrees of colour seen in costumes, on foUage, or
on certain parts of buildings. Where the tints were applied
in broad masses they generally produced good effects, but
HuUmandel was less successful in investing some of the minor
details with colour, the irregular splashes of red, for instance,
occurring in some of Boys' views, being often unsightly. It
was, in fact, the black outlines that made the picture, the
colouring being simply an accessory that would, in some
cases, have been better left out. Still, as an example of
early work in this line, the volume is of interest, though HuU-
mandel could scarcely fail to have been sensible of its short-
comings in the way of register, etc., as compared with Jones's
Alhambra, Perhaps it was this that caused the process — ^which
was not patented, HuUmandel's only patent being for his
" Lithotint " process in 1840 — to be made Uttle use of, though
the ultunate development of chromo-Uthography proceeded
on HuUmandel's rather than on Jones's method of working.
The former used a lesser number of colours than the latter,
not more than two or three being usuaUy employed by him
on large surfaces. Boys' book was dedicated to him, " in
acknowledgment of his many great improvements and highly
important discoveries in lithography." Some other sketches
by Boys, notably a series of London views (1841), were
reproduced by the same process.

A writer in the Quarterly Review, at the end of 1839,
referred with approval to the manner in which HuUmandel
produced Boys' volume of French views, and expressed surprise

195

COLOUR PRINTING

at the fact that twenty-six prints, equal in effect to water-colour
paintings, could be bought for so small a sum as eight
guineas.

A few years later, after Hullmandel had taken Walton into
partnership, the new firm published a large folio " Specimen
of Printing in Colours." This was a representation of a group
of flowers on a pedestal, in red, green and blue, the lettering
being in a central space on a solid gold ground. The whole
was surrounded with a border in blue and white, but the work
had nothing remarkable about it, being rather on the lines
of Engelmann's early efforts.

The art of printing pictures in colours by lithographic
methods, not being restricted in England by any patent, soon
spread from the great exponents to the little ones, with the
result that in the late forties examples of chromo-lithography —
of a sort — became fairly common. The Art Union for February,
1846, introduced the process to its readers through the medium
of a specimen print prepared by one G. Lee, but it was not a
very noteworthy example.

Although Engeimaim had a branch establishment in London
as early as 1826, it was discontinued in 1830, before his colour
experiments began, as the concern failed to pay. The practical
manager, Michael Hanhart, then started business on his own
account ; as a fellow townsman and pupil of Engehnann's
he was no doubt fully conversant with his old employer's
colour work, and with the examples of Jones and
Hullmandel before him, resolved to enter the colour printing
branch of lithography. His sons were taken into partner-
ship with him, and the imprint of M. & W. Hanhart is
more familiar to the student of early colour lithography than
almost any other, as the firm was in existence imtil as re-
cently as 1903. Their early work was in the usual flat tints,
and a good example of the use of these in conjunction with
gold will be found on the title-page of the Churchman's
Almanac for 1845. Soon afterwards the firm improved its
methods to the extent of printing the colours over each other,

196

THE HANHARTS' CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY

in contrasting or blending tints, the results of this new depar-
ture being exemplified in Dibdin's Progressive Lessons in Water
Colour Painting (London, J. Hogarth, 1848). It is stated
on the front cover that the designs were " printed with the
improved process of chromo-lithography by M. & W. Hanhart*
64 Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place." The pictures are
naturally of a rather elementary character, but the chief
interest of the volume Ues in the fact that the method by which
the colouring of some of them is buUt up, by successive
impressions from the colour stones, is demonstrated in detail.
For each of the first three prints four stones were used, i.e.,
black and three colours, and there are thus four " states "
of each of them. Considering the small number of colours
employed, these are fairly good specimens of chromo-litho-
graphy, though the process was still in swaddling clothes to
the extent that the colours did not by themselves compose the
picture, being only used to colour a black-and-white outline
print. Until this practice was thrown of!, chromo-lithography
can scarcely be said to have really arrived, and the Hanharts
were rather long in throwing it off. I. E. A. Dolby's Prague
Illustrated, a fine folio volume printed by the Hanhart firm
not earlier than 1860, is still in the old black-and-tint style
of two decades before, although the tints display a greater
range of colouring than was common in prints of that character.
There may, however, have been some special reason for this
book being so produced, as chromo-lithography of a fairly
advanced type is seen in A Booke of Christmas Cards, illustrated
by the Hanharts and published by Cundall in 1846. This is for
several reasons a desirable little volume; the letterpress
portion, which is within broad decorative borders lithographed
in gold and colour, was printed at the Chiswick Press in old-
style roman t3^e ; a few miniatures were reproduced in gold
and colours from ancient MSS., that which forms the
frontispiece being the best. Messrs. Hanhart did colour
illustrations of a different order for the Poetry of the Year
(Bell, 1853), which contains a charming series of twenty-two

197

COLOUR PRINTING

landscape views lithographed in colours by the Hanharts and
by Day & Son, though the precise share of the two firms
is not defined. In these cases, the prints were trinuned
closely and mounted on the text pages, an unusual style,
which gives an additional charm to the book. The same
course was followed in Feathered Favourites (1854), in which
the prints were circular, and mounted within floral borders
printed in gold ; there is no imprint on these pictures, so
it cannot be stated by whom they were produced. Another
variation from the usual practice occurs in P3me's Mountains
and Lakes of Switzerland and Italy (Bell & Daldy, 1871),
in which the sixty-four chromo-lithographic illustrations,
probably by the Hanharts, are printed directly on the text
pages. During the fifties and later, the same firm produced a
great number of chromo-lithographic title-pages for musical
publications, a branch of colour work which even Baxter
descended to. Many of these are very good, though, of course,
not elaborate specimens of colour printing.

198

CHAPTER VIII
CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY

Section II

FROM THE EXHIBITION OF 1851 TO THE PRESENT DAY

HE Great Exhibition of 1851 formed a
sort of general rendezvous for the
lithographic colour printers of the day.
Little was said by the Jurors about
chromo-Uthography, beyond the rather
hackneyed statement that by impres-
sions from successive stones results were
obtained equal in effect to a good
painting. The exhibitors included Engelmann and Graf,
Dickes, Owen Jones and Noel Humphreys ; the Hanharts
had a stand with a good display of their chromo-Uthc^raphic
productions, one of which, " The English Squire," by Brandard
after Fred. Taylor, was shown in all its progressive stages. The
Jury were so impressed with the novelty of the firm's chromo-
lithographic process of colour-blending that they awarded
it a medal, though the^ considered that the actual inventor
of the method was HuUmandel, who had died the year before.
Day died in 1845, but the business was continued by his three
sons, who got out for Ackermann and other publishing houses,
in 1851-2, a series of chromo-lithographic illustrations of the
Exhibition, several of which (got ready even before the show
opened) were of great size, 35} x 27 inches. Some beautiful
work is seen in the series of plates this firm produced, depicting
in the colours of the originals a large number of the fine art
objects exhibited. A few good examples on a smaller scale
may be seen in the plates of textile fabrics, etc., they prepared
for the Exhibition catalogue. Perhaps the most remarkable
pictorial record of this world-famous show was Dickinson's
Comprehensive Pictures of tke Great Exhibition, the views in
I&9

COLOUR PRINTING

which were Uthographed from pictures in water-colour painted
for the Prince Consort, to whom the work was dedicated, by
Nash, Haghe and Roberts, and issued in two huge folios by
Dickinson Brothers, publishers to the Queen, in 1854, three
years having thus been occupied by the preparation of the
volumes. Owing to the large size of the pictures, 19|- x 14|-
inches, this is perhaps the most realistic series of prints of the
Exhibition available in book form, but the colours were still
applied to tinting drawings in black outline and stipple. A little
hand-touching is visible here and there, but chiefly takes the
form of small patches of varnish to deepen the shadows, a trick
which was then conunon, and was the predecessor of the modem
practice of varnishing the entire surface of a picture by a
machine. There is more evidence of blending of tints than
was often the case with large prints of this character, and the
colouring is generally bright and good. An earlier example
of Dickinson's chromo-Uthographic work is A Spanish Ladye^s
Love (1846), a folio volume which has an illuminated title,
and a number of full-page lithographs in black and white.
The text is in the upper right-hand comer of each of these,
in gothic letter, printed in red and blue, with ornamental
initials in the style of the old MSS.

Two of the London music publishing firms, Jullien & Co.
and Chappell & Co., had a good show of musical publications
with title-page pictures printed in colours. Some of the
first-named firm's were done by Baxter, the others being
chromo-lithographed. At Hullmandel & Walton's stand
were a couple of prints in colours by the former's patent
" Lithotint " process, which was rarely used for colour work,
although a really fine print of this character often challenged
comparison with a mezzotint. Day & Son showed '' Specimens
of tinted and coloured lithography or chromo-lithography,"
and one Thomas Underwood, a Birmingham lithographic
printer (the only provincial worker in that line who exhibited),
had examples of " A new process of producing imitations
of water-colour drawings and oil paintings," the novelty

200

LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING MACHINERY

apparently consisting in their production by an improved
lithographic press. Messrs. De la Rue & Co. were still operating
their patented process of producing playing-cards in colours,
and showed specimens, eight tints, being often employed.
They also produced box-tops and bands for piece goods,
printed in gold and colours. J. R. Dicksee, a London
lithographer, had a six-colour chromo-lithograph on view.

All these exhibits were produced on the hand-press, as no
power lithographic machine had yet been placed on the
market, although an impression roller had been adapted to the
lithographic press by more than one inventor, notably by
Dumontier, of Rouen, in 1844 and A. C. Waterlow (a member
of the well-known London printing firm) in 1850. A German
mechanic, Siegel, of Berlin, brought out a cylinder lithographic
printing machine in 1852 (the actual impression was given
by the aid of a " scraper "), which was introduced into England
by the Scotch lithographic printing house of Maclure &
Macdonald, and continued in use for some time, although
gradually superseded by a machine invented by a Parisian
named Engues, which was sponsored in England and the
United States by Messrs. Hughes & Kimber, the printers'
engineers. Many other inventions of the kind followed, all
having for their object the improvement of the process of
lithographic printing, both as regards speed of production
and simplification of detail. Two Glasgow patentees, D.
Tannahill (1854) and J. Wallace, proposed to construct
machines adapted to print from zinc as weU as from stone,
the former's having two impression cylinders, to print two
pictures at once, and from a reel of paper if required ; whilst
the latter had a stone or zinc printing cylinder. A stone
cylinder had, however, been patented as early as 1845 by
Scholefield, a Manchester man, in combination with an
impression cylinder, whilst as regards the modem use of zinc,
the American Lithographic Company have built a number of
multi-colour rotaries of late years, with zinc printing cylinders,
i.e., steel cylinders covered with electro-deposited zinc.

201

COLOUR PRINTING

The decorative art aspect of the Exhibition formed the
subject of a fine publication by M. Digby Wyatt, who, like
Owen Jones, was an architect. This was entitled The
Industrial Arts of the Nineteenth Century, and was issued in
forty parts, each containing four plates, between October,
1851, and March, 1853. The plates were chromo-lithographed
by Day & Son, from the drawings of about a score of artists
specially employed for the purpose. This work was said to
be " the most important application of chromo-lithography,
to assist the connection which should subsist between art and
industry, which has yet appeared." Like nearly all the
chromo-lithographs of this period, the outlines are printed
in black, but the colour work is often of a very elaborate
description, as many as fourteen stones being required for
some of the pictures, though the average is seven. In all
there were 1,069 stones, weighing some twenty-five tons, and
as the edition consisted of 1,200 copies, no less than 1,300,000
separate impressions had to be taken from the stones, and
when it is remembered that in those days the stone had to be
cleaned and the paper adjusted after every one of them, the
magnitude of the task will be realised. As examples of
chromo-lithography, some of these pictures are particularly
fine. Amongst them may be mentioned Plate 28, a cashmere
scarf end; 41, a group of Church plate; 44, portiires of printed
mohair ; 1 16, a chintz pattern ; 148, an Axminster carpet ;
152, a group of Indian objects ; and 157, an ivory throne and
footstool.

Everybody who made some slight improvement in machinery
or methods forthwith advertised that he produced his prints
by a " new lithographic process." Thomas McLean, the
Haymarket publisher, used such a one for the illustration of
his Sketches and Notes of a Cruise in Scotch Waters (1850),
but whatever novelty there may have been in it, there is noth-
ing to be gathered from the pictures themselves, which are
of quite ordinary character. A really novel process,
however, for that period, was operated by Messrs. Thomas

202

NELSONS' COLOUR WORK

Nelson & Sons, the Edinburgh publishing firm, who had had
leanings towards colour work for some years, but hitherto
of purely letterpress character. Examples may be seen
in The Gift Book of Biography for Young Ladies (1848), the
text of which was printed in blue ink within red ornamental
borders ; and on a more elaborate scale in The Poetry of Home
(1849), a quarto volume in which the text, also in blue ink
with occasional headings in red, was surrounded with double
concentric borders in red and blue. Each of these books
was provided with a chromo-lithographic frontispiece in gold
and colours, by Schenck, of Edinburgh. It was about this
time that G. J. Cox, of the Poljrtechnic Institution, London,
invented a process of transferring steel and copperplate
engravings to stone, guaranteeing them equal to a run of
3,000 impressions, not a great one, it must be admitted.
Transfer hthography was practised by Silbermann, of Stras-
burg, ten years before, in connection with the production of
his first " Album," and Nelsons began using it in the fifties
for colour work. Specimens will be found in J. H. Balfour's
Plants of the Bible (1857), in which the transferred steel-plate
impressions, printed on stout coated paper, are lightly tinted
from other stones. These plates are rather rudimentary, but
similar work of a more advanced type appears in those of
S. Moody's Palm Tree (1864), which are fairly good examples
of colouring, though only three or four tints were employed.
The process resembled that of Baxter in that the colours were
applied to a steel-plate engraving, in fact, the Edinburgh
firm termed their method " Printing in oil colours," but
whereas Baxter used wood blocks for his tone work. Nelsons
preferred stones. They used this process largely for the produc-
tion of view and guide books, of which one of the earliest is that
to Windsor and Eton (1859), and perhaps the best that of the
Isle of Wight, with twenty-seven pretty little coloured pictures,
printed, as usual, on a " dull " heavily-coated paper. The
sky efiects were generally " ruled," and are noticeable for
their brilliant blues, which seem characteristic of this

203

COLOUR PRINTING

steel-ciun-stone work by Nelsons. Besides books, they also
produced great numbers of coloured picture cards, singly and
in sets, such as Songs by the Way (1880). The appearance
of the pictures in such works as the Picture Primer Series,
where they are printed in colours on the text pages, suggests
that woodcuts as well as steel engravings were often employed,
and that the tinting was not always done from stone. Another
Edinburgh publishing firm. Gall & Inglis, issued many books
illustrated with pictures " printed in Baxter's oil colours "
by Kronheim ; indeed, the frequency with which the term
" printed in oil colours " appears in connection with illustrated
books published from the fifties to the eighties affords evidence
of the popularity of Baxter's process. Among other London
firms who used modified forms of it were Ben George, of
Hatton Garden, as in the tinted woodcuts in Peier Parley's
Annuals for 1869-70 ; and Read & Co. of Johnson's Court,
Fleet Street. The latter published a series of Old and New
Testament Stories, each containing four full-page woodcuts
in black, coloured in particularly glaring tints from rather
coarsely engraved blocks.

A noteworthy firm of French chromo-lithographers in the
fifties, who exhibited at the great show of 1851, was that
of Lemercier (afterwards Lemercier & Claye), Paris. One
of their most important productions was an edition of
A'Kempis' Imitation of Christ, published by Curmer in two
impend octavo volumes in 1856-7, the second of which
consists chiefly of remarks upon the MSS. laid under contribu-
tion for the supply of the decorative detail on the pages of
the first. This latter contains sixteen pages of tables, a
Calendar extending to twelve pages, and 400 pages of text,
with eight separate sectional titles. Every page is surrounded
by a wealth of coloured ornament, to obtain which the great
libraries of the Continent were ransacked, MSS. from the
eighth to the seventeenth centuries being dealt with, although
French ones of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries furnished
the bulk of the detail copied. There are several full-page

204

FRENCH CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY

miniatures, and the splendid colouring is heightened with gold
throughout, some of the borders being printed on a gold or
bronzed background. The actual text is restricted to a space
of 12mo size on each page, and was also printed from stone.
For this purpose, the matter was first set up in type, and proved
on sheets of China paper, from which it was transferred to
the stone. The colour work necessitated the use of 900 stones,
most of the designs selected for reproduction requiring from
three up to as many as foiuteen tints, and great care had to
be exercised during the progress of the work, in order to avoid
any confusion of tones as a consequence of unequal drying
of the sheets, due to variations in temperatm-e. The work,
it may be mentioned, was issued in sixty-four parts at 3.50
francs each. In 1861 Curmer published a fine chromo-litho-
graphed reproduction of that famous illuminated mediaeval
MS., the Livre d'Heures d'Anne de BreUigne, and in 1864-6
L'(Euvre de Jehan Fouequet, L'Heures de M, Esiienne Chevalier.
This is a similar publication to the Imitation, and was issued
under the patronage of the Pope, in thirty parts at six francs
each. The lithographed colour plates are fully equal to those
in the other work.

Simultaneously with the production of these splendid books
in Paris, another, of even greater artistic importance, although
not possessing the same degree of pictorial beauty, was being
got out in London, viz. : Owen Jones's Grammar of Ornament,
which maintains to this day its position as a standard work
on the subject. Jones himself was then engaged in decorative
work in connection with the Courts he designed at the Crj^tal
Palace, and so the hundred and odd plates for the Grammar
had to be entrusted to others. They were drawn on stone
by Francis Bedford, with the assistance of four supernumer-
aries, and it is noteworthy that their execution occupied less
than a year. How much work they entailed can be better
gauged from an inspection of the great voliune itself than from
any mere verbal description. The world's varying schemes
of ornament, ancient and modem, savage and civilised, historic

205

COLOUR PRINTING

and pre-historic, are all represented in minute detail. Com-
mencing with the rude ornament of the untaught savage,
the beautiful series of coloured plates in the Grammar conduct
the artist vi& Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, Pompeii, Rome and
Byzantium to the Arabic, Moorish, Turkish and Chinese styles
of decoration. Then we have the ancient Celtic, the mediaeval,
and the Renaissance periods, the work closing with some
modem designs of conventional stalk-and-leaf character.
This truly monumental production was published in 1856,
all the colour work it contains being executed by Day & Son,
whose reputation, even had they never done an)rthing else,
it would most certainly have made. Needless to say, it was a
very expensive work : the British Museum copy, in a fine
appropriate binding, is recorded to have cost £19 12s. ; a second
edition, with some additional plates, was issued in 1865. Jones
died in London nine years later, but his Grammar was reprinted
as recently as 1904 by Messrs. Vincent Brooks, Day & Son,
Ltd., who succeeded to the business of the old firm in 1867.
In 1852, Day & Son published a chromo-lithographic repro-
duction, by Robert Carrick, of Turner's picture, " A Vessel
Burning Blue Lights." Turner is not an easy artist to imitate,
but Carrick acquitted himself well by producing an excellent
rendering of the original. The print measures 27 x 21^
inches, and was printed from twelve colour stones. It is one
of the earliest examples of the modem type of lithographic
colour work, in which the black outline of former dasrs is
altogether dispensed with, the picture being the product
of the colours alone. In the same year Day & Son produced
for John Wyatt Papworth a private plate representing, in
the colours of the original, the " Ladies' Carpet " which
had been presented to the Queen a short time before. Colour
work of quite a different character is seen in the " Table of
Wrought Iron " prepared for the Exhibition of 1851 ; it is a
large folio sheet, divided by rule work, printed in green, into
about 1,000 small oblong spaces, in each of which are several
numerals in red or green in alternate colours. The whole is

206

CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHIANA

surrounded by a rather inappropriate border of holly, printed
in red and green. The table work was probably first set in type,
and proofs transferred to the stone. From the same period
dates " The Star of Brunswick," a large circular design in
the style of a Gothic wheel window, about two feet in diameter,
each of the forty sections being divided by rule work into
thirty-six smaller spaces, containing numerals in red and
black. This was lithographed by Cartwright. One other
contemporary production of this kind may be mentioned,
though it was not lithographed, viz. : The Newspaper and
ParliatnetUary List, published by the London firm of Dawson
& Sons. This was also a large folio sheet, the lengthy list
of periodical publications being printed from t}^ in red,
blue and black, denoting respectively the Liberal, Conservative
or Neutral tendency of the political opinions of the journals
emunerated.

Three-colour work from stone has been referred to already,
and was long considered to rank among the possibilities that
were doomed not to succeed, but it was tried again in 1856
by J. Aresti (who held the post of chromo-lithographer to the
Queen), in a reproduction of a fresco by Michael Angelo,
in the three primary colours, printed over each other in
subdued tones. The tinting from stone, in red, yellow and
blue, of lithographed designs in black, was being carried
on even in unprogressive Egypt by 1855, at the establish-
ment of Carlo Gottwa, an Italian who had settled in
Alexandria, and " chromalithographyed " (sic), among other
things, a series of pictures illustrating Egyptian Costumes.
Early in the sixties, Day & Son, Ltd. (the firm was amongst
the first to take advantage of the Companies' Act of 1861),
got out several fine works by Jones, including a couple of
pictorial volumes, Joseph and His Brethren (1865) and Scenes
from the Winter's Tale (1866). These were in the flat-tint style
of the earliest chromo-lithographic period, the pictures being
printed against a solid gold background, and surrounded
with a decorative border, which in the Winter's Tale was of

207

COLOUR PRINTING

an appropriate Greek key pattern, the text being on opposite
pages in plain black lettering, also on a gold background with
border. An edition of Tom Moore's Paradise and the Peri,
a little earlier in point of date (1860), was illuminated in similar
style. In 1864, Jones's One Thousand and One Initial Letters
was published, this being a volimie mainly intended for the use
of the artist and designer. Though elaborate in detail, it vras
simple in colouring, red, blue and gold being the chief com-
ponent tints. Simplicity in colouring, and to a large extent
in decorative detail also, characterised the Victoria Psalter
(so called owing to its being dedicated to the Queen), illu-
minated from Jones's designs, and published in 1861. This
was a very large foUo, the leaves, of stout board, measuring
15 X 12 inches, and each page of text was surrounded by
an ornamental border. There was in addition a great number
of initials in coloiu^, which were subsequently pressed into the
service of the One Thousand and One series just alluded to.
The first few pages are finely decorated with a wealth of intri-
cate leaf ornament, and the voliune was enclosed in a special
binding of brown leather, embossed in bold relief in imitation
of oak carving. The colouring in the body of the work is
not, however, nearly so elaborate as in some of the other books
just mentioned. Day's got out a fine volume of colour printing
in connection with the marriage of the Prince of Wales to
Princess (now the Queen Mother) Alexandra in 1863.

A few years before Mr. Vincent Brooks, senior (who died in
1885), took over the lithographic business of Day & Son, he
produced the plates for a handsomely illustrated volume of
Shakespeare's Songs and Sonnets (Sampson Low & Co., 1862),
which contains ten fine chromo-lithographs after designs by
John Gilbert. These are excellent examples of lithography in
blended tints, and reproduce perfectly the characteristic Gil-
bertian touch and colouring. One can gather from these beauti-
ful prints that Mr. Brooks, who had been in the Uthographic
trade since 1848, was well qualified to carry on the artistic
traditions of the older house of Day. The volume also contains

208

THE AUDSLEY COLOUR BOOKS

thirty-two woodcuts, engraved by Edmund Evans and printed
in brown ink, with letterpress matter below, on a grey ground,
parts of which were engraved out where the woodcuts fell,
so as to give something of a chiaroscuro effect. Mr. Brooks
reproduced the well-known Chandos portrait of Shakespeare,
and it may be mentioned that his firm has done the coloured
cartoons for Vanity Fair from their start. Messrs. Waterlow
& Sons, of London, were also doing fine chromo-lithographic
work at this period, and some of the best of it appears in
Dr. J. T. D. Descourtily's History of the Birds of Brazil,
published at Rio Janeiro in 1852-6, and dedicated to Dom
Pedro II ; the colouring of the plates is very brilliant.

Apart from Jones's illuminated books, Day & Son distin-
guished themselves by producing W. and G. Audsley's splendid
rendering of The Sermon on the Mount. The Audsleys were
Liverpool architects, who followed Jones in developing a taste
for the internal polychromatic decoration of public and private
buildings, and turned their decorative instincts to account in
connection with the production of finely illustrated books.
The volume under notice was chromo-lithographed from their
designs by W. R. Tymms, and published in 1861 ; it has only
twenty-seven leaves, printed on one side of rather thin and
weak plate paper, the lithographed surface measuring about
16 X 14 inches. The style of ornament adopted is mainly
based upon ancient MS. precedents, and some of the large
initials and attached marginal ornament are remarkably
fine, silver as well as gold being used to set of! the colour
decoration, the work as a whole being distinctly finer than
anything Jones produced in the sixties. A reduced facsimile,
on a scale of about a fourth of the original, was issued subse-
quently, and on this occasion the lithographed pages were cut
close and mounted on stout cardboard leaves within red line
borders, so that the colour work is seen to better advantage.
In the same year the Audsleys published a Guide to lUuminaHng
(as Jones had done a dozen years before), with some
colour illustrations, and then we hear little more of them in

209

14— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

connection with chromo-lithography for some twenty years. In
1882 they published a fine folio on Polychromatic Decoration
as applied to Buildings in the Mediaval Styles (Sotheran
& Co.), which contains thirty-six plates lithographed in gold
and colours, and was accompanied by the same authors'
Ornamental Arts of Japan, illustrated in similar fashion. This
was followed the next year by what was described as a *' popu-
lar " account of the art of printing pictures by the chromo-
lithographic process, though one can scarcely imagine such an
expensive work becoming popular in the ordinary sense of
the term. The text was elucidated by forty-four plates in
colour, but although some account of the rise and progress
of lithography was given, there was not even an attempt
at presenting a history of that branch of the art with which
the book dealt 1 To treat the subject adequately would,
it is true, require a volume of no mean dimensions, and a
great deal of research, which facts have perhaps deterred
the army of writers on lithographic subjects from venturing
to tackle it. There is a good technical work on colour litho-
graphy in Wyman's Technical Series, viz. : Richmond's
Colour and Colour Printing as Applied to Lithography. There
is also one published in German by W. Knapp, of Halle (F.
Hesse, Der Chromo LUhographie, 1904). From the general
reader's point of view, the article on chromo-lithography in
the Strand Magazine for January, 1904, should be of interest.
The process has given its name to at least one periodical
publication. The Chromo Lithograph, '* a journal of art and
decoration," started in 1867 and continued until 1869, which
was published by Day & Son, but the colour prints that
illustrated it were rather poor examples of the art. It in-
corporated an earlier periodical, Nature and Art, which ran
for a few months in 1866-7, and also contained some chromo-
lithographs. What was claimed to be the first British period-
ical produced by chromo-lithography was The Little One's
Own Coloured Picture Paper, started by the London firm
of Dean & Son in May, 1885. Subsequently it passed

210

THE ARUNDEL CHROMOS

through various hands, and changed its title no less than
four times, but still maintained something of its original
character. In 1870-1 the YotUh's Pictorial Treasure, a
sixteen-page monthly, was issued at Birmingham by the
late Mr. James Upton, a colour printer, each number con-
taining four full-page coloured pictures, consisting of outline
woodcuts tinted by successive colour impressions from
smooth-surfaced relief blocks.

The most important non-commercial application of chromo-
lithography, in this coimtry at any rate, was made by the
Arundel Society from 1856 to 1897. This Society was founded
in 1849, under the auspices of Ruskin, Samuel Rogers, Lord
Lansdowne and others, mainly for the purpose of illustrating,
by reproductions of early Italian frescoes, the revival of the
arts in the thirteenth century. The Society was named
after Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, a great seventeenth
century collector of objects of " bigotry and virtue." Its
earliest prints were line engravings, but subsequently it was
decided that the comparatively new art of chromo-lithography
should be taken advantage of, and after a reproduction of a
modem water-colour drawing had been made by way of trial,
the long (and now valuable) series of 197 colour prints was
commenced in 1856, by the production of a facsimile of
Perugino's " Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," from the original
at Panicalle. This was executed for the Society by Vincent
Brooks, but is far from being one of the most prized of the
series, copies being quoted at no more than SOs., as compared
with ten times as much for some of the others, such as Bellini's
" Madonna and Child." Having regard to these extravagant
prices, the collector of Arundel chromos no doubt envies the
members of the Society, who, for an annual subscription of a
guinea, were entitled to a copy of each of its publications.
From 1856 to 1865, fifty-two chromos were produced ; in
the succeeding ten years, seventy ; from 1876 to 1885 there
were only forty-three ; and during the twelve years ended
1897, but thirty-one ; the series coming to an end with the

211

COLOUR PRINTING

publication of D. Gozzali's " St. Augustine and Child." Notwith-
standing the present demand for these beautiful colour prints,
the Society was dissolved owing to sheer lack of pubhc support.
Photo-chromo-lithography not having been established when
the Arundel prints began to appear, every picture chosen for
reproduction had to be copied by an artist, luider expert
direction. Though an English firm was employed to produce'
the prints at the start, the Society at a later period favoured
chromos " made in Germany," and the names of many well-
known German lithographic firms may be found on the prints,
including Storch & Kramer of Berlin, the lithographers of
the colour plates for Prof. Griiner's fine work on the art
objects in The Green Vaults at Dresden (Virtue, 1876) ;
Wilhelm Greve, of Berlin ; Hangard-Mange, etc. It is
needless to attempt to describe the Arundel chromos in detail,
as examples may be seen in almost every second-hand print
dealer's window. Like other " collected " items of this
character, some of them have recently been reproduced.

A passing allusion may be made to a German type of chromo-
Mthograph, known as the " oleograph " from the fact that
the finished print was thickly coated with an oily varnish,
and was passed, when dry, beneath a patterned roller, which
imparted to the surface an embossed impression resembling
the grain of canvas, or more rarely the texture of garments
or the outline of jewellery, etc. The oleograph is usually
despised as a cheap " made in Germany " sort of thing, but
some of the larger prints are far from being bad, indeed they
are occasionally really good examples of chromo-lithography.

The introduction of photo-lithography in the early fifties
had practically no effect on colour printing. Probably one
of the earUest works in which it was used for that purpose was
the facsimile reproduction of Domesday Book, conunenced
about 1860. This is two-colour work, as the frequent rubri-
cated headings and passages are reproduced in the colouring
of the original. A negative of each page having been taken,
a sheet of paper coated with gelatine and sensitized with

212

A TWO-COLOUR " DOMESDAY BOOK "

bichromate of potash was exposed under it, the resultant print
being then coated with photo transfer ink, and washed in order
to remove the superfluous ink in the unexposed parts. A photo-
transfer print being thus obtained, it was laid down on zinc,
and after transfer the zinc plate was etched for printing in
the usual way. This is the " photo-zincographic " process
first used by the Ordnance Survey Department at Southampton.
In this connection, it will be of interest to recall a previous
proposal to reproduce Domesday Book in the two colours
of the original. This was in 1767, at the instance of the House
of Lords. It was estimated that 1,164 copperplate facsimiles
of the pages of the MS. would be required, and particulars as
to the probable cost of the work were obtained, the suggested
edition being intended to consist of 1,250 copies. The cost of
tracing a page of the MS., and engraving it on a plate of copper,
was taken as £4 4s., the plates themselves being priced at
about 6$. 5d. each. It would have taken a man ten days to do
a single plate ; and to print 1,250 copies from the entire series,
in one colour, would have cost £2,560, or in two colours,
£7,280. In addition, 25s. per ream would have had to be paid
for paper in the former case, but 30s. in the latter, in order
to stand the extra handling and printing. It was estimated
that the entire task would occupy five years, and that the total
cost, if the sheets were printed in two colours, would be £18,443.
Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the Gov-
ernment decided it would be much cheaper to have a typo-
graphic reproduction, which was accordingly put in hand,
although it was only printed in one colour, and thus looks
rather crude by the side of the modem reproduction. A
very different and much more realistic result than either
of these could be achieved if the work were again reproduced,
by one of the latest processes, such as coUotypy, and the time
and cost would be very much less. Photo-lithography is
now generally used for work of this character, as the camera
does in a moment what a draughtsman or copyist would need
perhaps a day to do.

213

COLOUR PRINTING

The adaptation of photography to chromo-lithography
was perhaps first proposed by Mr. Burnett, a member of the
Edinburgh Photographic Society, in a paper read before that
body in February, 1857. He suggested that as many negatives
should be taken as it was intended to use colours in the
picture, and that those parts of each which it was not intended
to print in a particular colour should be stopped-out, when
the remainder of the image could be printed through the
negative on to a stone covered with a solution of asphaltum
in ether, a method of photo-hthography which had been
patented in 1852. In the Art Journal for August, 1854,
there was an article dealing with a new process of photo-
graphy on wood, with a specimen cut that had been produced
by its aid. Mr. Burnett went further, and suggested that
the series of negatives just alluded to could be printed on as
many sensitized wood blocks, which could then be engraved
for printing in colours in the usual way. This is an idea that
we do not think has ever been carried into practice, but the
asphalt method of photo-chromo-hthography has since been
perfected under the name of Photochromy. This process,
in its modem form, was invented at Zurich about 1887, under
the auspices of Messrs. Orell, Fussli & Co., a prominent art
printing and publishing firm in that city, and was introduced
into England by them shortly afterwards, though it was not
until 1896 that the present Photochrom Co. was formed.
Since the original patents expired, many other firms, British
and foreign, have adopted the process, and some very fine
work is turned out by it. As the name implies, a " Photo-
chrom " is, in spirit if not in fact, a colour photograph, the
base being generally a coUotype print, either produced direct
from the film or through the medimn of a transfer on to
stone. As regards the colouring, it is as near natm'e as one
can reasonably expect to get, short of actual colour-photo-
graphy, seeing that every part of the colour detail is applied
from what is, to all intents and purposes, an integral portion
of the image on the negative, transferred to stone by ordinary

214

■■I

PHOTO-CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHY

photo-lithographic methods, the glossy fihn applied to the
finished print serving to heighten the impression of being a
photograph in colours. Some Continental firms use as many
as sixteen colours in their photochroms, but the average
number falls very much below this. As a photochrom is not
a half-tone colour print, the three-colour process does not, or
at any rate need not, enter into its production. Tri-chromatic
photo-lithography is, however, more than a quarter of a
centiuy old ; as early as 1883 Mr. W. Griggs, of Peckham, was
working on these lines, and a specimen print of this kind by
him will be found in Hodson's Guide to Art Illustration (1884).
This process has often been used for the reproduction, with
only three printings, of multi-colour pictm-es by another
method. The late Mr. Ernest Nister, the Nuremberg art
publisher, patented a process of this sort in 1895, and an
example of its results, a three-colour photo-lithographic repro-
duction of a fourteen-colour chromo-lithograph, appears in
one of the parts of Fritz's Handbuch fUr Lithographic und
Steindruck (Halle, 1897-1900). This was printed, not from
stone, or even from zinc, but from aluminiimi, which was first
used as a printing medium about 1889, in both Germany and
America, and is now to a large extent superseding zinc, just
as the latter had in some degree taken the place of stone in
lithographic printing processes. The introduction of this
light and ductile material, in place of the heavy and cumbrous
stones, has almost revolutionised the lithographic printing
business, as the aluminium plates can be bent round a cylinder,
and the sheets thus printed by rotary press methods, the
production of lithographic work in colours being thereby
greatly accelerated and simplified. Still more recently, the
rotary principle has been applied to chromo-lithography along
the lines on which, for nearly twenty years previously, printing
on tin had generally been conducted, i.e., the impression
from the printing surface is not made direct on the material
to be printed, but on an intermediate flexible surface, such as
india-rubber, from which the still wet impression is transferred

215

COLOUR PRINTING

or " set-off " on to the paper. But this is so essentially
modem a method that it must be left for Mr. Gamble to deal with.

Some of the best modem examples of photo-chromo-litho-
graphy are to be seen in the books Messrs. Griggs & Sons
have illustrated for the Trustees of the British Museum. The
Facsimiles from Early Printed Books in the British Museum
(1897), some of which required four stones, were produced
in this way by Mr. Griggs, whose firm has for many years
taken a leading part amongst those operating this method.
Still finer work of this description will be seen in George F.
Wamer's Illuminated MSS. in the British Museum (1899-1903).
The four series contain in all sixty plates, the facsimiles being
printed in colours on a ground tinted to represent the tone
of the old vellum. Where gold occurs in the original it is,
of course, reproduced, although it was found practically
impossible to bumish to the exact degree desired. 300 copies
of the first series were run of!, and the stones then cleaned,
but as the demand justified editions of 500 in the case of the
other series, the work was done again for the first lot, so as
to enable a further 200 to be printed. The coloured illustra-
tions of some of the bookbindings in the Corfield collection,
which appeared in Messrs. Sotheby's catalogue of that sale
a few years since, illustrated the utility of photo-chromo-
lithography as applied to the reproduction of book-covers.
A French printer, M. Danel, of Lille, reproduced bookbindings
in colours by typographical methods some twenty years
since in somewhat similar style.

On the Continent, chromo-lithography is largely used for
the purpose of colouring illustrations produced by a different
process, such as half-tone or photogravure. The result of
the former method is usually known as " Autochrom," and
only differs from " Photochrom " in that it has a half-tone
key-block. It dates from about 1900, and is best suited to
the reproduction of ordinary negatives or silver prints, thus
avoiding the use of orthochromatic negatives. The half-tone
grain is usually routed out of those parts of the block that

216

COMBINATION COLOUR PROCESSES

represent the high lights, and the colours supplied to the
black impression from stone in the usual way. It is claimed
that a result can be obtained with six or eight tints, by this
method, as good as one that would require from a dozen to
eighteen stones in ordinary chromo-lithography. The process
is very much in favour for picture postcard work, more than
one half-tone block being sometimes used. Fritz's Handbuch
fiir ChrotnO'Lithographie contains an eight-colour print in the
manner of chalk work, executed at the State Printing Office in
Vienna, in which three of the colours (brown, grey and blue)
were printed from half-tone blocks, and the rest — red, yellow,
rose, with another grey and blue — ^from stones. Another good
example of multi-colour half-tone work, having five tints — the
three primaries and black, with the addition of pink — can be
seen in the same volume, this being produced by the " Chromo-
t5rpe " process of that well-known Viennese house, Angerer &
Goschl. In Hoffmann's Systematische FarbenUhre (Zwickau,
1892) is another five-colour print, an early specimen of half-
tone, executed by Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co., of Munich. The
grains in this case are rather coarse and irregular, as was then
frequently the case. During the past year or two, a tendency
has shown itself to follow the example set a score of years
since in Paris, to colour half-tone pictures by means of grained
blocks. A Boston (U.S.A.) firm, Tolsom & Sunergren,
patented a process of this kind in November, 1903, to which
they give the name of " Multitone." The colour plates are
coarsely and irregularly grained or stippled, the pictorial
effect being gained by a final over-printing from an ordinary
half-tone block. Another method practised in America (by
the Lakeside Press of Chicago, for example) exactly reverses
this procedure, the half-tone block being printed first, in
ordinary or double-tone inks, and the colours put on in trans-
parent tints after the first impression has dried. The tone
plates are of zinc, transfers from the original being made,
and only the portions required for each colour retained, the
rest being routed out. Both in America and on the Continent,

217

COLOUR PRINTING

though much more rarely in this country, a " woodcut
effect " is frequently given to half-tone work in colours by
tooling the plates over by hand. When this is carefully done,
with due regard to the nature of the picture and the colour
scheme, a very good effect is produced. A rarer class of
work is that in which woodcuts are printed over half-tone
coloured grounds. Excellent examples of this sort of thing
can be seen in the Italian fashion journal, Margheriia, in which
the grounds are frequently tri-colour, the woodcuts (or line
zincos from pen and ink drawings) being printed in black
upon them with excellent result. Ordinary monotint photo-
gravures are occasionally coloured by lithography on the
Continent, this method being operated by the Imperial Printing
Office at Vienna. A reproduction by that establishment of
a picture by Rubens can be seen in Fritz's Handbuch fur
Lithographic ; in this case a dozen colour stones had to be used,
although the application of a single bright colour, such as red,
will often produce a good effect. All sorts of more or less
descriptive fancy names, such as Collotrichrome, Autobunt,
Photo-lila, Nikipolychrom, etc., are given to these combination
colour processes by the various Continental printers or pub-
lishers who operate them, but practically all of them have a
photo-lithographic basis. " Photostone " is an English
method, analogous to Photochrom, and another home-made
term was " three-colour ink-photo," an adaptation of multi-
colour work to the particular photo-lithographic method
that has been for many years used in the production of the
plates for the Builder. So-called new processes have, in fact,
flitted across the colour printing firmament by dozens during
the past twenty years, most of them having only a very
ephemeral existence. Speed and cheapness of production
are what the British publisher mainly requires where colour
plates are concerned, and these points conceded, he seems
to care for hardly anything else, so that those methods, such
as colour-collot)rpe, that really give the most artistic results,
are thrust in the background, and seem likely to stay there

218

MODERN FRENCH CHROMO-LITHOGRAPHS

until they can be worked on more economical lines than at
present.

In 1898, Mr. G. R. Hildyard, a London colour printer,
introduced the " Wharf-litho " process, which was a combina-
tion of lithographic and letterpress printing methods. The
design drawn on the stone was transferred to as many zinc
plates as there were to be colours in the finished print, and
these plates were subjected to a certain chemical treatment, which
enabled them to be printed — ^litho fashion — from the surface, on
an ordinary Wharfedale machine. In 1899 a company was
formed to operate the process, under the auspices of Mr. Harvey
Dalziel, but although much good work was done, the concern was
wound up in 1904. The " Chromo Spray Poster " was another
of Mr. Hild3rard's inventions, and met with the same fate.

As a method of book illustration, ordinary chromo-litho-
graphy is rather in the shade just now, except in France.
A good and unusual example is afforded by an edition of
Guy de Maupassant's Le Vagabond, published at Paris in
1902 for the Soci6t6 des amis des Livres. The illustrations,
which are somewhat of the impressionist t3^e, were drawn
direct on the stones by Steinlen, and are printed on the text
pages. C. de Laclos' Les Liasons Dangereuses (Paris, Ferrand)
has twenty-two chromo lithographs by Lubin de Beauvais,
printed on bufl-tinted paper, in the style of the eighteenth
century imitations of drawings in coloured crayons. Les
Aventures du Rat Parisole (Paris, Blaizot, 1906) contains
eighty-two lithographsin tints by Pierre Vidal, who also designed
coloured borders for each picture, and the fine series of initials
in colours that decorate the pages of that handsome volume.
This is an unusual type of chromo-lithography, resembling
wood block work in colours, and all the pictures are on the
text pages. Books of this character are, however, issued only
to subscribers, in limited editions at very high prices, 200 francs
being usually the cost of a copy on ordinary paper, i,e,, in the
cheapest form. In this country such conditions would amount
to absolute prohibition, except in a very few special cases.

219

CHAPTER IX

PHOTO-MECHAKtCAL COLOUR PRINTING — COLOUR ETCHING

CENTURY and a quarter ago, Tom
Wedgwood, whom Mr. R. B. Litch-
field tenns " the first photographer,"
was experimenting with a camera
obscura, but neither he or Davy,
who followed him, were able to fix
the images they obtained. J. N.
Niepce of Ch^ons, some thirty years
later, did however produce prints
by the aid of light, although his was rather a printing-out
method than what we now term photography, as his tin
plates, coated with bituminous varnish, were exposed under
the engravings he copied, the soluble part of the coating
being afterwards removed, so that the plate could be etched
for printing purposes. He was thus the first photo-engraver,
though he did little more than a few trial plates. This was
an intaglio photo-etching process, and so, for many years,
were those that followed it, such as the methods of Claudet,
the British exploiter of the Daguerreotype process (1843),
and of Fox-Talbot, the father of British photography (1852-8).
The latter was the first to utilise photographically what
photo-engravers now term a " screen," for breaking up the
haif-tones into minute points to form a practicable printing
surface, although he only used a piece of gauze for this purpose.
The effect produced by " two sets of lines at right angles
diagonally across the plate, leaving a surface of mere dots,"
must, however, be credited to Godfrey Woone, of Kensington
(1846). Specimens of Fox-Talbot's later photo-engraving
process, " Photoglyphy," may be seen in the Photographic
News for 18S8, but although he produced experimental plates

PRETSCH'S PHOTOGRAVURE PROCESS

at intervals for several years afterwards, no commercial use
was made of the process.

The man who first placed photo-mechanical prints on the
market for public sale was Paul Pretsch, of Vienna. In
1853 he invented a method of producing intaglio printing
surfaces by exposing a metal plate, coated with bichromated
gelatine, under a glass negative, and washing it in cold water
afterwards, when the gelatine produced a grain in proportion
to the action of the light, and formed a mould from which,
when dried and hardened, a cast or electrotype could be taken.
Pretsch came to England in 1854 to operate his process
and formed a Photo-galvanographic Company, with works
at Holloway, where a series of fine plates, denominated
" Photographic Art Treasures," was produced in 1857. Some,
such as " The Cornfield," from a photo by H. White, were
based on negatives from nature, whilst others, hke Sidney
Cooper's " Cattle," were from photographs of pictures. The
grain of the plates resembles that of collotype. This process
is singled out for special mention, not only because it was
the first of its kind to be operated on a conunercial scale,
but because it also furnished the first example of the appli-
cation of press colouring to photo-mechanical prints. Two
London lithographers, Lewis & Bohm, introduced, early in
1857, a method of colouring these photogravures of Pretsch's,
from either wood, metal, or stone printing surfaces. The
idea was not thought worth patenting, nor has the writer
seen any colour prints so produced, but we have here a process
almost identical in purpose with the " Photochrom " one of
forty years later. Baxter, and some others, proposed colour-
ing ordinary silver prints by lithography, but this is not
the same thing. Pretsch's enterprise was not a success and
he returned to Vienna in 1863. It is to another Viennese,
Karl Klic, that the present half-tone photogravure method is
due, he having simplified, in 1879, the old Photoglyphic pro-
cess of Fox-Talbot's, so as to adapt it to modem requirements,
but until quite recently no machine-coloured photogravures

221

COLOUR PRINTING

have been produced, the mechanical difficulties involved
having proved almost unsurmountable. But the old process
of inking intaglio-engraved plates by hand, in order to produce
a coloured print at one impression, was revived about thirty
years ago, and has been practised ever since. The Parisian
publishing firm of " Goupil & Co." (Manzi, Joyant & Co.),
was turning out colour photogravures from their printing
establishment at Asni^res as early as the seventies, they having
at that time a special photogravure process of their own,
which was based on one invented by Woodbury, the originator
of the " Woodburytype " method of mechanically producing
imitation photographs. Like that of the Rembrandt Intaglio
Printing Co., Messrs. Goupil's process is not a patented one,
and thus the details are not public property. Photogravure
is the method now generally employed for high-class repro-
ductions of old engravings in colour, or of oil paintings, etc.,
the plate being inked by hand, from a standard coloured
copy which the inker has beside him for reference. As
the colouring is entirely at the discretion of the artist, and
not dependent upon colour selection by the camera, the scheme
can of course be modified or extended, according to the nature
of the work and the price the producer of the plates is going
to get for them. Only two or three firms in this country
make a speciality of this class of colour printing, and these
mostly confine themselves to the issue of plates for sale through
the printsellers. Production is naturally slow, from six to
eighteen copies a day, varying with the size of the picture
and the number of colours used. In 1903 Messrs. George
Newnes, Ltd., started a quarterly publication fitly entitled
The Ideal Magazine, in which the illustrations were mostly
colour-printed photogravures, produced at Willesden by
the Art Photogravure Co., but its large size and almost pro-
hibitive price militated against it, so that the first number
was also the last. The Art Photogravure Co. were the suc-
cessors in business of Mr. L. Collardon, who had been associated
with Karl Klic. The Company, in its turn, has been succeeded

222

PHOTOGRAVURE IN COLOUR

by Messrs. Rich & Hart, formerly in its employ, and they still
make a speciality of colour photogravure.

On the Continent many firms habitually turn out these
photogravures in colour. A few works of the de luxe order have
been illustrated in this manner by Messrs. Goupil & Co., such
as Perrault's Barbe Bleu and La Belle au Bois Dormant (Bous-
sod, Valadon & Co., 1887), with colour-photogravure repro-
ductions of forty-one water-colour drawings by E. de Beaumont,
printed on the text pages before the letterpress, which also
appears to be engraved ; this was got out at the firm's works
at Asni^res. Benedite's Musie du Luxembourg (Paris, 1895)
has a three-colour photogravure on the first page of the text.
Molinier's Le Mobilier Royale Frangaise (Paris, 1902) and
the frontispiece to Sir John Skelton's Charles I (1898) are
other fine examples of this firm's colour photogravure, and
so is the frontispiece to Mr. Pollard's Henry VIII in the
same series of monographs, though of a rather different order.
There b at least one Paris firm producing multi-coloured
photogravure prints from successive colour plates. Splendid
work in colour photogravure is done by Messrs. Blechinger
& Leykauf , of Vienna ; whilst in London the Art Repro-
duction Co. have for many years had a special department
for this class of work. Within the last year or so, the Rem-
brandt Co., of Lancaster, and the Van Dyck Gravure Co.,
of New York, have simultaneously perfected methods of
printing photogravures in colours from separate plates on a
rotary press, at a speed of several thousands per hour. This
is one of the most important and interesting modem processes
of high-class colour printing, and is perhaps destined to take
— to some extent — the place of ordinary three-colour, to
which, as a matter of results, it is much superior. The Rem-
brandt Co., in particular, have recently issued several excep-
tionally fine prints in colours, of a character quite different
from any others now on the market, the flat mechanical effects
of the trichromatic process being altogether absent. A repro-
duction, on a reduced scale, of one of them, appears in this

223

COLOUR PRINTING

volume. This Company's method has not been patented,
and therefore nothing definite can be said about it here,
although the mechanical theory underl3dng all processes of
this nature will receive attention in Mr. Gamble's chapter.

One of the most recent series of prints in multi-colour
photogravure, from plates inked d la paupie, is that of the
facsimile reproductions of pictures by the late G. F. Watts,
R.A., in the Watts Art GsJlery at Compton, near Guildford,
and elsewhere. These are printed (and the plates were
prepared) by Mr. Emery Walker, and are very good specimens
of this class of picture.

A quite different class of work, though meritorious in its
way, was the aptly-named " Bartolozzi " series of miniature
reproductions — about carte-de-visite size— of eighteenth
century colour prints, that were brought out a few years ago
by Messrs. E. W. Savory, Ltd., of Bristol, for use as private
Christmas or other greeting cards. These were photogravures
inked in three or four tints by stencils, and printed by the
London firm of Allen & Co., Ltd. The colour scheme of the
original could not, of course, be fully reproduced, but on
the whole these little prints were very well done, and reflected
considerable credit on those concerned.

A process for machine printing from intagUo plates in
colours was patented by Neale, a Cincinnati printer, as far
back as 1853. The plates were placed upon a series of beds
upon endless chains, and the impression given by rollers.
When a number of colours was reqxiired, they were applied
to the plate by stencils, the surface being subsequently wiped
automatically. Messrs. Danesi, of Rome, in preference to
colouring photogravures with full body tints, employ only
faint shades, a mere tinge in fact. After engraving the plate
by the ordinary process, the copper is reinforced by biting
in on all the parts which, conformably with a rough sketch
previously made, are to be printed in colours. This reinforc-
ing has to be executed with judgment by a skilled colour
engraver, who then inks the plate, cleaning it so that the

224

" 6 S S

SS 3 i I

o * ! 1
.."Si

THE COLLOTYPE PROCESS

parts to be coloured remain as distinct as possible. For colour-
ing the plate in the proper parts, little pads or hair pencils
are employed, and after doing so blotting paper is placed
on the plate to take off the excess of colour. Then the plate
is carefully cleaned to prevent all mixing, after which the
printing is executed. Having pulled some proofs, a printer, if
intelligent, will soon acquire such skill in printing and colour-
ing that he will find it possible to produce in this way 150 copies
per day, or nearly twenty times the output of the ordinary
method. A specimen print of this kind appeared in the Journal
of the Italian Photographic Society for September, 1904.

We have now to deal with those processes of colour printing
in which a photographic image is used, either as an actual
printing surface, as in collotype, as an etching groimd, as in
half-tone, or — in the form of a line block — as an outline for
a picture that can be coloured by non-photographic methods.
Prints of this latter character, i,e., coloured line engravings,
are not based on any scientific colour theory, but the collot3T)e
and the half-tone methods are generally operated, so far as
colour work is concerned, on the lines of what is known as
the three-colour process, i.e., the so-called primary colours,
red, yellow and blue, are successively printed from three
separate blocks, and by their superimposition reproduce
— assuming the inks, the blocks, the printers and other neces-
sary adjuncts are right — all the colour values of the original.
Collot3T)e may be treated first, as being, so far as three-colour
work is concerned, rather the older of the two. It is dealt with
again in the next chapter, but simply described, collotype is
the art of printing from a bichromated gelatine film, which,
after having been exposed under a negative, acquires the
property of absorbing water in exact accord with, but in inverse
ratio to, the action of light. When the image has thus been
formed, a roller charged with lithographic ink is passed over
it, and the ink is taken up by the film in proportion to the
action of the light . Thus the film has much the same pro-
perties as a hthographic stone. As early as 1855, Poitevin

225

IS— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

introduced a photo-lithographic process which contained the
germ of the collotype method, but the invention of collotype
proper is attributed to MM. Tessie du Mothay and Marechal,
of Metz, about 1865, though they used a metal support for
their films. Herr Josef Albert, of Munich (father of Dr. E.
Albert, of the well-known process-engraving firm in that city) ,
first introduced in 1869 the glass plate which is now mostly
used as a base for the gelatine film. Albert turned the
process to account for the production of collotypes in colours
by the " Albertype " method in 1870, although he was closely
followed, if not indeed preceded, by Husnik, of Prague, and
Lowy, of Vienna, names still familiar in the colour printing
world. Professor Leon Vidal was another early worker in this
field, and the State Paper Office at St. Petersburg was produc-
ing colour collotypes by 1878, if not before. Prints of this kind
are mostly on the three-colour principle, but this is not, of
course, a sine qud nan. Obemetter, of Munich, worked a collo-
type process in the early seventies, in which any number
of colours could be used, taking one negative for each colour
required, and retouching and stopping-out before preparing the
printing films. About the same time, a German scientist, Dr.
H. W. Vogel, introduced colour-sensitive photographic plates,
using napthol blue for the red, eosin for the yellow and fluore-
scin for the blue ; the films thus prepared were printed in
colours corresponding to that part of the spectrum to which the
particular plate was sensitive. Much importance was attached
to this invention in Germany ; in the eighties a Society for
Printing Collot)rpes in Natural Colours by Vogel's process
was formed, and a number of prints produced, specimens of
which were shown at the Berlin Amateur Exhibition of 1890,
and the German Exhibition held in London in 1891, at which
latter they were awarded a prize. They are very good exam-
ples of a somewhat unusual form of photochromic printing,
and in general appearance rather resemble the new machine-
printed photogravures in colour, having the same soft and
silky aspect.

226

COLLOTYPE IN COLOURS

Four-colour collotype, i.c, the three primaries and a key
plate in grey, was practised by a Munich firm, Messrs. Bohrer,
Gorter & Co., for a few years from 1888, and some fine work
was produced, but the demand was not sufficient to warrant
its continuance. The same fate overtook the first attempts
to popularise colour-collotype in this country, by Messrs.
Waterlow & Sons. Ltd., in London (1891), the Photo-
chromatic Printing Co., at Belfast (1894), and their successors
the Heliochrome Co., in London, which ceased work in 1898.
Both the latter concerns were under the practical management
of Mr. Martin Cohn. Amongst the first-fruits of British
colour collotype are the prints produced by Waterlow's for
Land and Water in 1890-1. In the issue of that periodical
for July 26th, 1890, reference was made to a picture intended
to have been included in that number (but postponed to the
succeeding one), which was said to be produced by a new
process — a modification of colour photography— discovered
by the editor. This print, a yachting scene, entitled " Rain
and Sunshine on the Solent," was published with the issue
for August 2nd, and though simple in colouring, is, if an)rthing,
a better example of the process than a couple which followed
a few months later. These were portraits of their Royal
Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, the former
being issued with Land and Water for March 21st, and the
latter on June 20th, 1891 ; accompanying the first was an
article on the subject by the gentleman responsible for the
colour negatives, <Mr. G. T. Teasdale-Buckell, in which he
gave some account of the methods adopted for the production
of the prints. The Chase for March, 1891, also contained
a three-colour collotype print, representing a couple of vases,
produced by Waterlow & Sons from colour negatives by
Mr. Teasdale-Buckell ; this was a rather better picture than
either of the portraits. In 1900, Mr. Wetherman, of Enfield,
started to produce collotype prints by the ordinary three-colour
method, and Messrs. Valentine, of Dundee, even brought
out some colour-collotype picture postcards a year or so

227

COLOUR PRINTING

after, but both these firms now find that this is not a process
which can at present be carried on with a profit in this country,
though Griggs & Sons, of London, and Bemrose & Sons,
of Derby, have done some fine work by it. On the Conti-
nent, however, it is very much alive, as the numerous fine
specimens which were shown at the Dresden Photographic
Exhibition last year sufficiently demonstrated. Several
of the text books on photochromic printing processes contain
examples of collotype in colours. In Bonachini's work
on Colour Photography (Milan, 1897) is a reproduction of
an oleograph by the three-colour method, the separate colour
impressions being also shown. August Albert's Lichtdruck
(Halle, 1898) has a set of prints illustrating the four-colour
method in its various progressive stages. Paul & Lehmann's
Hulfsbuch (Breslau, 1890) has a six-colour collotype facsimile
of a water-colour drawing of a gazelle's head.

The results of a process of colour-collot3^y are well displayed
in the fine series of reproductions of the works of some of the
Old Italian Masters, commenced by the Medici Society, London,
in 1898, and lately extended to some pictures of the Flemish,
Dutch and English schools. These prints have a distinctive
character of their own, recalling Dr. Vogel's process, and the
series, which now includes some two hundred subjects, may
be considered as worthily carrying on the work of the defunct
Arundel Society. Within the last few months the Medici
Society have commenced to issue, through their publisher
(Mr. P. L. Warner), some books illustrated in colour by the
process, amongst which may be mentioned The Song of Songs
and the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, both of which have
colour-collotype reproductions of water-colour drawings by
W. Russell Flint. These are works of the de luxe order,
printed from a specially-designed fount of t3^e on specially-
made paper, and being illustrated in colour by a novel method,
they constitute a distinct departure in art publishing. Signor
Giulio Danesi, of Rome, a member of a family of untiring
investigators of photo-mechanical printing methods, has

228

COLOUR-COLLOTYPE METHODS

lately hit upon the idea of using an aluminium plate as a
support for the collotype film, instead of the usual glass slab.
As the plate can be bent round the cylinder of a rotary printing
machine, Signor Danesi has brought out a special press adapted
for the purpose, on which he has been recently producing
some fine three-colour coUotypes. It is a point worth men-
tioning here that the firm of Danesi was perhaps the first to
commence the publication of coloured picture postcards ;
this was in 1882, the designs being furnished by a Sicilian artist
named Baldassore. Although the price was only ten centesimi
(Id.) per card, there was practically no demand for them,
and so the enterprise was soon abandoned.

Printing from several successive coUotype colour films is
rather difl&cult, the gelatine being so sensitive to changes of
temperature, the effect of which is the distortion of the images,
the alteration of the tones, and the consequent spoiling of the
picture. The results of the process, when worked under satis-
factory conditions from really good negatives, and with suitable
inks, is however well worth the trouble that has to be bestowed
upon the production of prints of this type, which, in the
writer's opinion at least, are unexcelled by those due to any
other photochromic printing process, save perhaps the new
machine-printed colour photogravures. This is largely due
to the absence of the hard mechanical grain of the half-tone
print ; there is of course a " grain " in collot5^e, but it
is due, not to the interposition of a ruled screen, but to the
puckering up of the surface of the gelatine film in drying, and
is therefore very irregular, the unvarying patterned grains
of the screen being thus absent. At the present day, collotype
is very largely used in colour printing as a basic process, i.e.,
a photographic representation of the original view, or picture,
or object, is obtained by means of a monotint impression in
collotype, the colouring being added afterwards by some
different method, such as lithography, or printing from half-
tone or other grained blocks. These combination processes
have been mentioned already, and as Mr. Gamble will deal

229

COLOUR PRINTING

further with this branch of the subject in his chapter on modem
methods of colour printing, the writer will pass on to the three-
colour half-tone process, which is unquestionably the most
popular method of colour illustration.

In principle it is based upon the idea that Newton promul-
gated, and which Le Blon, as we have seen, was the first to
put into practice in connection with colour reproduction,
viz., that there are but three colour sensations in nature.
In its scientific modem form, on which practically all methods
of colour photography are founded, this theory was first
demonstrated about half-a-century ago, by Professor J.
Clark Maxwell, who used coloured Uquid filters for the purpose
of obtaining three separate images of an object, representing
those parts of it from which red, yellow and blue light were
respectively reflected. The Professor also introduced that
makeshift style of so-called colour photography which consists
of viewing a set of three coloured negatives or transparencies
through an optical instrument, in order to reproduce the
colours of the original. The application of these colour
negatives to the making of relief blocks for printing purposes
dates from the sixties. Curiously enough, two independent
French investigators, working along the same lines, originated
trichromatic colour printing processes which were almost iden-
tical ; they were Louis A. Ducos du Hauron and Charles Cros.
The former published some details of his methods in L&s Mandes
and formally communicated particulars of the invention to the
Academy of Sciences at Paris in December, 1867, whilst M.
Cros patented his process in France in November, 1868, and
rather tardily annoimced the discovery to the French Photo-
graphic Society in July, 1869, two months after a similar
course had been taken by M. du Hauron with regard to his
process, in the working out of which he was helped by his
brother Alcide. They used orange, green and violet colour
filters, but had no ruled screens ; the printing method they
proposed to utilise was lithography, the images obtained on
the colour negatives being transferred to stone by the ordinary

230

EARLY three-colour PRINTING

photo-lithographic process, and printed in the three primary
colours they represented. But three-colour photo-lithography
has hardly ever proved a satisfactory method of colour repro-
duction, and Du Hauron's experiments proved no exception
to the rule. Their process will be found described in the
Traite Pratique de Photographie des Couleurs (Paris, 1878),
and specimens of their three-colour prints may be seen in the
Cours de Reproductions IndustrieUes (Paris, 1882). The
latter work also contains an account — with an example— of
Professor Leon Vidal's method of photo-lithographic transfer,
for the purpose of colour printing from stone, which was not,
however, based upon the three-colour theory, the outlines
of the picture being given by printing a " Woodburytype "
imitation photograph on the top of the set of colour impressions.
The trichromatic printing process depends upon the correct
interpretation of the colour values of the object photographed,
and this is accompUshed by means of the " light filters "
already referred to, glass cells of liquid colour or pieces of
optically worked glass. It is theoretically assumed that
there are but three colours to be rendered, red, blue and yellow,
and hence it follows that in order to extract any one of these
from the light reflected from the object on to the sensitive
plate in the camera, the other two must be eliminated, therefore
the eliminating medium — i.e., the filter — ^must be capable of
absorbing them and allowing the third colour to pass through.
Thus an orange filter absorbs the red and the yellow — ^which
produce orange — and allows the blue to pass, and so on with
the others. The principle was first utilised, practically and
commercially, in the seventies, in connection with the develop-
ment of collotype, as has been stated already, its application
to letterpress printing dating only from 1885. This is due
to an American, Frederick E. Ives, of Philadelphia, to whom
the credit of many other important inventions in connection
with photo-mechanical processes must also be given, though
the amount of profit he personally derived from them does
not seem to have been very great. He re-invented the

231

COLOUR PRINTING

method, as old, photographically speaking, as Fox-Talbot's
time, of breaking up the half-tones of a photograph into dots,
so as to translate the picture into a relief printing surface that
could be inked in the ordinary way. In 1878, when he was
using the Woodburyt5^e process for the production of
letterpress printing blocks, he was in the habit of inking the
swelled gelatine relief produced by that method, and pressing
it on a sheet of paper with its surface embossed with a sort of
grain in dots, that took the ink from the relief, and thus
presented the picture in grained form, which Ives re-photo-
graphed, and made a zinc " process " block from, in the usual
way. Examples of this method appear in the Photographic News
for August 11th, 1882, and some of the numbers of the New
York Century Magazine for the same year. Ives perfected
the process later by taking a plaster cast of the Woodbury
relief and applying to it a sheet of rubber with pyramidal
dots aU over its surface. These dots being inked, spread
out more or less according to the var3ang relief of the cast,
and thus left a sort of half-tone print on the latter, which
was then photographed as if it were a line original, and a zinc
block made in the usual way. For some time before this,
Ives had been experimenting with colour photography, and
had invented an instrument called a " Chromoscope," for
viewing three tinted transparent glass positives, which,
when superposed, reproduced a picture of the original in its
natural colours. From the production of these photographic
colour transparencies to that of printing blocks which should
represent the same three colours, was an easy and natural
step, which by 1881 Ives had taken. He showed at the Phila-
delphia Electrical Exhibition in that year a three-colour repro-
duction of a chromo-lithograph, produced by the aid of three
screens, the negatives being made with bromide emulsion and
treated with chlorophyl, eosin and tannin, in order to dissect the
colouring contained in the original. Ives showed similar
prints at the Philadelphia Novelties Exhibition of 1885, but
he thought so little of the idea at that time that he did not

232

THE HALF-TONE PROCESS

even trouble to patent it, nor, it may be added, did anyone
else, so that the most prominent colour illustrative method
of the age has always been public property. The production
of grained printing surfaces was, however, patented by several
persons, including Foumier, Reaulx and Barret, at Paris
(1868), and J. Dredge, in London (1880). Baron F. W. von
Eglofistein produced half-tone blocks in the United States,
by the aid of a wavy-line screen, as far back as 1864, or there-
abouts (see Inland Printer, October, 1894). Modem half-
tone is, however, mostly associated with the name of George
Meisenbach, of Munich, who patented his improvement in
the production of cross-hatched photo-process blocks in 1882.
It consisted merely in the shifting of the screen during the
production of the negative, in order to produce a better grain.
Woodbury & Bell m 1883, and Falk of Berlin in 1884, patented
methods of half-tone block production, but the Meisenbach
blocks ultimately held the field against nearly all comers,
including Ives, who had neglected to patent his process in
the United Kingdom.

The half-tone screen consists of a couple of plates of glass
ruled with very fine lines — ^which may vary in number from
thirty to 200 or more per inch — and placed in contact with
each other in opposite directions, so that the two sets of
lines are crossed at an angle of ninety degrees, and form
transparent squares. The interposition of this screen between
the lens of the camera and the sensitive plate which is to
receive the image, results in the light reflected from the object
photographed being split up into an infinite number of small
rays, each passing through one of the tiny squares between
the crossing lines of the ruled glasses. The dark parts of the
object reflect the light only feebly, and thus the ra)^, being
small and thin, only affect a very minute portion of the sensitive
surface, producing, when the plate is developed, a tiny dot.
The rays from the lighter parts, on the other hand, being
stronger, produce larger dots. As the resultant negative has
to be printed through, in order to obtain the ultimate image

2d3

COLOUR PRINTING

on the sensitised surface of the metal plate that is etched for
conversion into a printing block, the scheme of dots which
represents the picture is reversed in its tone values, the high
lights being represented by small transparent openings, brought
about by the joining-up of the comers of the dots arranged
in chess-board fashion, as a result of the action of the screen.

The earliest appUcation of half-tone to colour printing seems
not to have been made on the lines of the three-colour process,
but for furnishing key-blocks to a series of colour impressions
from tone plates. These were — and still are — ^produced by
the aid of a coarse " dust ground " of bitumen or resin,
the " process " image obtained photographically being stopped-
out and etched. This is the French method known as
" chromot3^gravure," due, we believe, to the joint enterprise
of M. Manzi, of the Goupil publishing firm, and the Parisian
printing house of Lahure & Co. It is to some extent a
modification of the old aquatint process ; a detailed account
of it will be found in Mr. Gamble's recent book on Line
Engraving and a briefer one in the next chapter.

The Christmas, 1881, number of L'lUustnUion (Paris) has
some of the earliest plates of this description, which exhibit the
result of three months' hard work in devising a practicable
photo-mechanical colour printing process. There is an eight-
page supplement in colour (including a London street scene after
a water-colour drawing), printed from blocks in which the tone
was partly represented by dots, partly by short broken lines,
and partly by a grain not altogether unlike that produced by
aquatinting, or by a screen in the form of a coarse textile
fabric. This irregularity, quite apart from the date, showed
that these blocks, by whatever photo-etching method produced,
owed nothing to Meisenbach. Black, red and blue were the
colours mostly used, one picture being printed in blue-green
on a blue ground, with the high lights routed out.

A few years after, two or three distinct styles of colour
work were being used in L'lUustraHon, of which the Christmas,
1889, number furnishes typical examples. The front cover

234

THE FRENCH CHROMOTYPOGRAVURES

has a conventional floral design in four tints and gold, no
half-tone or other key block being used in this case. The
first of the four colour plates (after a painting by Geoffroy)
has the colours applied from etched tone blocks of the usual
character, the outline details of the print being supplied by
a woodcut, printed last, in black. In the remainder of the
colour plates, although the tone blocks were of the same nature
as the others, the key block was a half-tone, this — ^at least —
being produced by Angerer and Goschl, of Vienna.

Paris-Nod for the same date displays similar work, the
grained tints being overprinted by a half-tone in black, but
where this latter was not used its place was taken by a repro-
duction of a pen-and-ink line drawing, which served as a key
plate for the colours. This particular issue contains some
technically interesting reproductions of drawings in three
crayons, white, grey and black, the latter being printed from
a half-tone block with the high lights routed out. In 1883,
Messrs. Boussod, Valadon & Co. started Paris lUustri, which
was largely illustrated in colour. The engraver employed
was M. Gillot, whose father was identified with the earliest
practicable method of producing line engravings by transfers on
zinc, the lines of which were rendered acid-resisting by resin
being dusted on, the rest of the surface of the plate being etched
away. It was a modification of that method which was used
in the journal under notice. Compared with the splendid
" chromotypogravures " which are issued, for instance, with
the special numbers of the Figaro lUustri, these early colour
prints are rather crude productions, but except for the natural
improvement of style, colouring and finish, the method used
for the production of the blocks seems to be the same, prints
nearly as good as those of the present day being issued with
the Figaro lUustri of twenty-five years ago.

This latter periodical was at first only a special Christmas
number of Paris lUustri, conmiencing with that for 1883,
the avowed object being to rival the Christmas numbers of
the English pictorial papers, such as the Graphic and the

235

COLOUR PRINTING

Illustrated London News, in which, as we have seen, colour
printing was largely used, although almost unknown in France
prior to the eighties. In April, 1890, however, Paris lUusiri
was discontinued, the Figaro lUustri taking its place as a
colour-iUustrated monthly. The cover of this initial issue is
a fine example of chromotypogravure, the back being devoted
to a series of pictorial advertisements, also in colours, of a very
artistic and unusual character. The separate coloured plate,
a facsimile of Edouard Detaille's " ficlaireur," had the
shadows heightened by a thin film of varnish, a style which
is now abandoned.

Though it is somewhat anticipating another branch of our
subject, attention may be given here to the beautiful series of
coloured plates appearing in the Figaro-Modes, the queen of
fashion papers, which is printed by Messrs. Lahure & Co., and
was started in 1903. These are in three or four colours, the
latter being generally reserved for portraits, the tints used
being the three primaries and black. Only the last is, as a
rule, a true half-tone block, the colours being applied from the
etched plates already referred to. The subject is photographed
and two proofs supplied to the colourist, one of which he passes
on to the engraver to make the half-tone block from, but the
other he colours, taking as his model the actual tints of the
costume it is desired to represent, the background and other
accessories being, of course, suitably coloured as weU. From
this coloured proof the photo-engraver works when preparing
his tone blocks, great care being necessary in order to represent
the flesh tints properly. The three-colour pictures in the
Figaro-Modes are usually half-tones.

Fine examples of French chromotypography, as applied to
book iUustration, are seen in the series of plates in the Armorial
de la Toison d*Or (1890), reproducing in colour facsimile the
Arms, etc., of the Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece
in the middle of the fifteenth century. These pictures almost
give the impression of water-colour drawings.

Early examples of the use of half-tone blocks in English

236

Ptau Etchini Co., I

SCREENS FOR COLOUR WORK

colour work (not three-colour) occur in the vignettes on the
paper covers of the sixpenny Waverley edition of Scott's
novels, published by Black in 1891. The half-tone block is
printed in reddish-brown on the top of the colour impressions,
which are in blue and yellow, the lines of the latter being partly
solid. In May of that year, the Royal Photographic Society
got together for exhibition, on the occasion of a lecture by M.
Leon Vidal, a small collection of photochromic prints by all
the Continental firms known to produce them, but Messrs.
Angerer & Goschl, of Vienna, and Dr. E. Albert, of Munich,
were the only ones who were able to furnish three-colour
prints produced by letterpress methods, all the others being
photochroms or colour collotj^es. Dr. Albert patented some
improvements in the method of using the ruled screen in colour
reproduction, and Ernest Vogel, at the end of 1892, went a
step further by using a separate screen for each colour, ruled
at different angles. Albert tried later to claim a master patent
on the idea of using three screens at angles differing by fifteen
or thirty degrees, and threatened proceedings which, if
successful, would have paralysed the trade, but fortunately
nothing came of it. Three single-line screens had, however,
been used by Ives as early as 1881.

The introduction of glass screens automatically ruled, and
having the lines engraved into the surface, was an important
factor in the development of the three-colour process. It is due
to two Americans, Messrs. Max & Louis E. Levy, who were
experimenting continuously from 1886 to 1893, in which
latter year their first British patent was taken out. There
were further patents in 1894, 1897 and 1901, for various
improvements in the ruling or patterning of the lines. In
the meantime, one firm after another was taking up three-colour
half-tone work. Husnik, of Prague, engaged in it about 1891,
and in the following year it was introduced into the United
Kingdom, the Photochromatic Printing Co., of Belfast, and
Gilbert Whitehead & Co. (who used Albert's process), and
Waterlow & Sons, of London, being the first to produce

237

COLOUR PRINTING

British three-colour half-tone prints. The process was intro-
duced here from the Continent, and the same was the case
in America, where Ives' old method— somewhat glorified and
improved— was put mto practice by William Kurtz, of New
York, in 1892, and soon received the name of Colourtype.
The Photo-Chromotype Co. brought it back to the place of
its birth— Philadelphia— in 1893, and at the end of 1894 the
premier American printing trade journal, The Inland PrinUr,
condescended to take notice of the infant process, and to
present an example produced by it to its readers ; this is a
picture of a fish, reproduced from a fourteen-colour lithograph
by Paul Bracht, of Chicago. In the same year, a fairly repre-
sentative lot of specimens of British and foreign three-colour
work was got together at the Royal Cornwall Exhibition at
Falmouth, and from that time to the present the process has
grown apace, and obtained a hold, in the estimation of the
trade and the public, which is second to none.

One of the earliest English three-colour prints the writer has
seen is the plate presented as a supplement to Land and Water
for February 13th, 1892, representing " Sainfoin," the winner
of the Derby in 1890, this being prepared by Messrs. Waterlow
& Sons, Ltd., from colour negatives taken by Mr. Teasdale-
Buckell. The Technical Library of the St. Bride Foundation has
a copy of this picture, and also separate proofs from the three
colour blocks used in its production. The gradual development
of the ordinary three-colour half-tone print may be studied in
the early volumes of Cassell & Co.'s Chums, started in 1893,
when trichromatic letterpress printing was just commencing to
make its introductory bow to the publishing trade. With the
issue for November 30th in that year was presented a coloured
plate entitled " Hope," after a design by W. H. Overend, this
having been printed from three grained blocks, inked in the
primary colours, but the general appearance and texture of
the picture were singularly akin to those of the early French
colour prints already referred to. Two months later (January
25th, 1894) there was another print, representing " The

238

THE DESERTED VILLAGE.

HALF-TONE COLOUR WORK

Start of the University Boat Race," in which the grain ot the
blocks approximated more to that of ordinary half-tone. On
August 30th, the print of Chums appeared, in a still
more advanced style, though much of the surface of the red
block was solid. From the commencement of 1895, however,
three-colour prints of the ordinary t5rpe began to appear at
intervals, with an occasional variation in the way of a full-page
woodcut printed in red or green ; most of the three-colour
blocks bear the imprint of Husnik & Hausler, of Prague.
The decoration of book covers in colour is fairly common,
but in most cases the colours are appUed to the cloth in a
blocking press. The cover of the Process Year Book for 1905-6
(London, Penrose & Co., Ltd.) provides an example of tri-
chromatic printing on cream-coloured cloth from half-tone
blocks. The design, of an early sixteenth century character,
was modelled in clay, in high relief, by Mr. G. S. Littlejohn,
and afterwards tinted for reproduction. Colour negatives
were taken and three blocks prepared in the usual way by the
Swan Electric Engraving Co.

Compared with most of what has gone before, much of
this seems very modem history indeed, but the younger
generation, who have scarcely known any other colour printing
process than trichromatic half-tone, will perhaps be
surprised to learn that twenty years ago it was practically
non-existent. As in Le Blon's day, there has been great
controversy about the advantage— or otherwise— of using a
fourth or black block, and the champions of the German
" Citochrome," of the American ** Quadricolour," etc., are
loud in their praises of the particular method they swear by.
A four-colour print of a fire scene, dated 1899, may be seen in
the Inland Printer of Chicago. But as Mr. Gamble deals with
modem colour processes in the concluding chapter of this book,
and presents some additional facts bearing on their history,
it will not be necessary for the writer to dwell any longer on
this branch of the subject.

The number of half-tone blocks that may be used for the

239

COLOUR PRINTING

production of a coloured picture varies from one up to half
a dozen or more, although in these latter cases the multiplicity
of grains is apt to confuse the outlines. Examples of six-colour
half-tones may be seen in M. G. Vuilliers' La Tunisie, printed by
Mame at Tours in 1896. Printing in two colours from a single
surface has been practised for several years, chiefly by the aid
of a " veil " over the part intended to apply the second colour,
although other and more complicated methods have been
tried or proposed. In 1905, Signor V. Turati, a printer at
Milan, brought out a process which he termed " Sincromy,"
in which an impression in black from a half-tone block was
inked in a number of tints from a slab of solid colour ; the
tints were arranged in mosaic fashion, the surface being
automatically damped before each application of the " ink "
to the surface of the block. In the ordinary way, however,
printers who only use a single block for colour work are content
with the effect produced by the so-called " double-tone "
inks, in which certain chemical substances are added to the
colouring matter, imparting to it the property of giving both
a tint and a shade of the same colour with a single inking of the
block, the depth and tone of the colouring varying with the
lights and shadows of the picture. This is a practical solution
of a problem which had occupied many inventive brains
since at least 1867, when a Frenchman named Roger suggested
mixing, with inks of various colours, chemicals that would
repel one another like oil and water, so that an inking roller
could be charged with, say, three colours at once, without
incurring any risk of their blending and thus spoiling the
intended effect.

Half-tone prints in two colours, blue and brown, appeared
on the covers of The Chase as early as 1891, but fifteen years
since there was still only a single London photo-engraving firm
that made a speciality of blocks for this class of work. The
use of two colours, whether they be primaries or not, generally
provides a three-colour picture, as if the colours, for example,
be blue and yellow, green will be produced at the points where

240

STKElCr \*It-:W IN DINAN. IlKITTANV

COLOURED LINE ENGRAVING

they overlap ; but it is usually found to be an economy, in
cases where a special design is furnished for reproduction in
two colours, to produce it in two primary tints, and make a
couple of half-tone blocks therefrom through colour filters
in the ordinary way. The result is oftentimes rather startUng,
not to say unnatural, but the cheap novel or magazine publisher
generally wants something gaudy, and cannot waste time in
selecting harmonious colour schemes.

A photo-etched block for colour printing is not necessarily
a half-tone, as a line block will often suit the purpose quite as
well, if not better, besides being cheaper. It could, of course,
be worked in colour as a hne block pure and simple, but this
method is scarcely ever followed, it being more usual to give
a grain — or, as it is commonly termed, apply a " tint " — to
parts of the drawing before it is photographed for reproduction.
This " tint " is applied from a so-called " shading medium,'*
introduced by an American named Day in 1883, i.e., a film
of gelatine backed with celluloid varnish, and patterned on
the gelatine side, in slight relief, with a regular system of lines>
dots, etc., which is inked and transferred to the design.

As the colour scheme is due to the taste — or otherwise — of the
artist or printer, and in no wise dependent upon colour selection
by the camera, as many, or as few, colour blocks may be pre-
pared as desired for the purpose of colouring a line engraving.
Some processes of this kind are largely used for the production
of the better class of children's books, in the illustrations
of which the outline is printed in black by an ordinary line
block, and the colouring applied from grained blocks, produced
by the aid of shading mediums or by some similar method.
An early example of this class of work is seen in The Coloured
Bible for the Young, published by Routledge in 1884. It
contains 125 illustrations in black and two or three colours,
the solid parts of both the black and the colour blocks
being relieved by occasional patterning of certain spaces ;
they were engraved and printed by James Moir, of Edin-
burgh. Messrs. Chambers* Twentieth Century Primers (1905)

241

ie--(2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

furnish fairly representative examples of ordinary coloured
line engravings, as used in low-priced books. A description
of the process of preparing line engravings for colour work
forms the subject of a chapter in Mr. W. Gamble's Line
Engraving (1909) ; the frontispiece to that work is a four-
colour line engraving, i.e., the three primaries applied to colour
a reproduction in black of a pen-and-ink sketch, separate proofs
of each of the four blocks used also being given.

Coloiu'ed illustrations from a combination of line and half-
tone blocks appeared in the Million, a penny illustrated weekly
started by Messrs. George Newnes, Ltd., in 1892. Each issue
had four pages printed in colours from grained zinc blocks,
generally the three primaries (a black half-tone being often
used as well), although there was no attempt at producing
three-colour prints as we understand the term to-day. The
journal had a career of two or three years, and its decease was
followed by a long interval, during which there was no cheap
English periodical illustrated in colour. Then in 1902 two
gentlemen who had been concerned in journalism in Ceylon
started The Coloured Pictorial, and sunk a considerable sum
of money in laying down plant for its production ; in this
case half-tone blocks were used, the pictures being in one,
two, or three colours. Ordinary Wharfedale machines were
used, three in series, and the idea was to immediately pass the
sheets from one machine to the other, using some special
additions to the ink to faciUtate quick drying. But the printers
were not able to get good register, and thus the colouring was
so poor that the public never took kindly to the paper, and it
ceased to appear after about half a dozen numbers had been
published. At the present time, the cheap colour-illustrated
press is chiefly represented in this country by such publications
as Messrs. Harmsworth's Puck, started in 1904, and printed
from the web on rotary machines in four colours, from nickel-
faced line blocks, by the London Colour Printing Co. That firm
produced for the proprietors of the Daily News, in the early
part of this year, Pictures of the New Parliament, which

242

TRICHROMATIC XYLOGRAPHY

contained a Political Chart for 1910, in red, black and green, and
the Daily News for February 12th had an article descriptive of
the processes employed. In the United States, stereotyped
half-tone blocks were printed in several colours on rotary
newspaper presses from 1888, when the Christmas numbers of
the New York Herald and Journal brought out coloured supple-
ments produced at the rate of 48,000 copies per hour. The
Boston Post issues with its Sunday edition a coloured section
of sixteen pages, printed in four tints by stereos prepared from
zinc plates grained by shading mediums. This is a class of
work that is practically imknown in this country, although
the colour-illustrated weekly is conunon enough on the Con-
tinent, papers like the Petit Journal at Paris, the Simplicissimus
at Munich, the Blanco y Negro at Madrid, and La Domenica del
Corriere, printed on rotary machines at Milan, having contained
coloured pictures in their ordinary issues for some years past.
The introduction, and subsequent rapid progress, of methods
of producing printing surfaces by photo-etching has practically
killed wood engraving, except for catalogue illustration and
one or two other special classes of work. But the older art
has, to a limited extent at least, " got its own back " by
cutting into a domain previously sacred to " process," i.e.,
three-colour work. Trichromatic lithography, collot3^e and
half-tone have already been dealt with, and no doubt Mr.
Saalburg or his English rivals will shortly provide us with
something in the way of trichromatic photogravure. It
now only remains for us to speak of trichromatic xylography,
in order to make our chain of three-colour processes complete.
The little that has been done in this direction is rather of
an experimental than of a practical character, and it is hardly
necessary to say that the three-colour woodcut is not an
English production. It is rather surprising, however, to
find it in America, where Mr. G. Koch has engraved blocks
for some prints of this kind, including one of a Dutch cottage
interior. In France, M. Leon Enfer is one of the chief ex-
ponents of this style, and he approximates more to the old

243

COLOUR PRINTING

woodcut manner, whereas Koch's prints look rather like
three-colour half-tones. In each case there are three blocks,
inked in bluish black, red and yellow respectively, and as
the lines made by the graver are cut up, in the higher lights,
into dots to render the half-tones, the methods employed
to produce the colour effect are very much the same as in
photographic three-colour, save that no camera is used, and
that the blocks are hand-engraved woodcuts.

Although almost banished from England, the woodcut
is still a power in the printing world on the Continent, particu-
larly in France, where many quite modem books have been
illustrated from wood engravings, either printed in or supple-
mented by colour. Some works issued by M. Hetzel, a Parisian
publisher, furnish good examples, such as the Bourses de
Voyage (1903), in which woodcut impressions in black are
coloured in red and blue from tone blocks. Some ten years
since, an attempt was made by the publishers of Modern
Art and Literature to acchmatise coloured woodcuts (which
in that case were " made in Germany ") in this country,
but without success. Mr. C. H. Shannon and Mr. Gordon
Craig have produced a few woodcuts for printing in colour,
usually in flat neutral tones, but the most noteworthy modem
exponent of the coloured woodcut is tmdoubtedly Mr. Lucien
Pissarro, the shining light of the " Eragny Press." He is
the son of M. Camille Pissarro, a well-known French etcher
of the impressionist school, who occasionally worked in colour.
Lucien developed a taste for wood engraving at an early
age and obtained an opening in Paris, but soon lost it owing
to the distaste felt for his pecuhar style. Thus disappointed
in his own country, he came over to England in 1893 and
became associated with Mr. Ricketts, of the " Vale Press,"
in whose types Pissarro's first books were produced, at Epping
in 1896-7, and later at the Brook, Hammersmith, a locality
much affected by the art craftsman. The earUest, and also
the most noteworthy, was Margaret Rust's Queen of the Fishes
(1894), which is a peculiar volume in more ways than one,

244

i
i

III

lll

THE ERAGNY PRESS COLOUR BOOKS

consisting of only seventeen pages, printed on one side of
Japanese hand-made paper, in the fashion of the Chinese books.
The text was written out in the style intended and reproduced
by photography. There are sixteen woodcut illustrations, of
which one is printed in five colours, and four others in four,
whilst eight are in grey, and the remaining three in red. The
title is printed in gold, as well as the border to the frontispiece,
which is repeated four times elsewhere, but in green. Mr.
Pissarro's coloured woodcuts are quite different from anything
else of the kind, the tints being of a thin filmy water-colour
character, although the coloiu: scheme seems to lean towards
that of the chiaroscuro woodcuts of the old Italian t3^e. This
volume is the only one produced on so elaborate a scale, the
later ones being illustrated mostly by woodcuts printed in
black, with an occasional one in colour. Aucassin and Nicolette
(1903) has a woodcut frontispiece in foiu: colours, the text being
in black, with large ornamental initials in red. A selection
of Songs by Ben Jonson (1906) has a circular frontispiece in
colours of a rather cloudy natiure, and in this case the text
of the book is in red and black throughout, with music of the
old Gr^orian character. Diana White's Descent of Ishtar
(1903) has the frontispiece and first page of the text surrounded
by an ornamental border printed in green. The colour-printed
paper of the covers, usually of two shades of greenish-grey,
gives a distinctive character to the publications issued from
the Eragny Press, which, by the way, takes its name from a
village in Normandy.

Although designed and executed by a Frenchman, the
colour decoration of these books cannot be considered as of
French character. Nevertheless, it is to France, or at any rate
to the Continent, that we have to look for any really original
effects in modem colour printing. A glance at the windows
of the average high-class London bookseller's shop will be
sufficient to convince that the British publisher has apparently
no conception of the existence of any other illustrative process
than the hackneyed three-colour half-tone, and if anything

245

COLOUR PRINTING

different ever be suggested to him, it is almost invariably by
someone representing a foreign house, or in close touch with
foreign methods. Indeed, it would be difficult to name an
important colour printing process that was constructed on an
absolutely new foundation by a Britisher. Baxter leant on
Savage, as he in turn leaned on Jackson, and he on the older
foreign chiaroscuro engravers. In the same way, Hodson's and
Leighton's modified aquatint methods were based on Le
Prince's invention, and Jones's chromo-lithography probably
owed something to the earlier German workers.

Printing in colours on modem lines was initiated in Paris,
as we have seen, as early as 1881, a date which may thus be
regarded as that of the dawn of the revival of colour printing
in France. Its most original production, of late years, has
been colour-etching, which is the last process the writer has
to speak of in this book. A contributor to the Studio, a few
years since, characterised this as an art "as capricious and
uncertain in its results as it is dubious in its convention,"
but with the latter point we are not concerned here. Mr.
Hinde, in his Engraving and Etching, enumerates nearly a
dozen modem colour-etchers, but there is little or nothing to be
gleaned from him as to the nature of their methods or the
character of the results. There are also several others whom
he does not mention, including Thaulow, Trowbridge and La
Touche.

The production of etchings in colour is not an absolutely
new process, for as long ago as 1839 a Londoner named Henry
Griffiths obtained a patent for an invention of this kind, using
one plate for each tone required, the outlines being usually
bitten in on steel. Griffiths prepared prints by his method
for a few books published about that time, including one
dealing with the new Anglican Cathedral at Jemsalem (1842),
but in all the copies of this the writer has seen the printed
colour was supplemented by hand work ; Griffiths' inks, too,
seem to have been of a rather fugitive character.

The modem development of colour-etching in France, as a

246

PHOTO-CHROMO ETCHING

means of book illustration, owes much to that well-known
author, M. Octave Uzanne. It is in points such as these
that the producer of the French voliune de luxe differs so largely
from the EngUsh ; the latter, as witness the productions of
William Morris, strives to present an almost unreadable
work, of mediaeval character, in a mock-antique garb, whereas
the Frenchman issues a modem work, of current interest, in a
dress of the very latest Parisian type. M. Uzanne's LEventail
(1882) is an early example ; the illustrations, from designs by
Paul Avril, are on the text pages, and being vignetted and
printed first, are in places partly beneath the text. The
colours are very varied, but only one is used for each illustration,
which is of the nature of a photo-engraved reproduction of a
wash-drawing. G)loured etchings of a much more advanced
character, and in the form of separate " aquarelle " plates,
appear in the same author's 5cm AUesse la femme, issued in
1885 by the Maison Quantin, who also got out the previous
book. Several artists were employed on the production of
the plates, including FeUcien Rops, and the general effect
suggests the work of Debucourt a century before, though
the processes employed probably had photogravure as a basis ;
E. Charreyre was the engraver and printer. M. Uzanne had
a half-playful reference to the subject in his preface, in which
he said that he did not propose to patent the method used,
nor to enter into a detailed description of it. The actual
photo-etching seems to have been coloured by tone blocks
or plates, not altogether unlike those used in the con-
temporary Parisian illustrated journals already mentioned,
and in the preparation of which a rouletting tool was perhaps
used.

A process of etching for colour printing, that was much used
in France for book illustration about this period, was that
known from its inventor, M. GiUot, of Paris, as " Gillotage."
The design was drawn or transferred on to zinc or copper in
lithographic ink, and the lines dusted over with powdered
resin ; the plate being then rocked in an acid bath, the surface

247

COLOUR PRINTING

was eaten away except where it was protected by the resin,
and a line block produced. It is evident that by transferring
or washing-in broad masses of colour, tone blocks could be
produced for the purpose of colouring the line impressions,
and when the dust-grain ground was fine instead of solid,
and the ink of a proper shade and consistency, it made the
imitation of water-colour drawings (or " aquarelles," as the
French term them) a comparatively easy task. M. A.
Silvestre's Cante de V Archer (Paris, Rouve3^e & Blond,
1883) is generally looked upon as the first French book of
any importance that was illustrated in colour by this process.
The blocks were engraved by Gillot after the original water-
colours by A. Poiron, and printed by Messrs. Lahure & Co.
All the illustrations are on the text pages, so that the volume
recalls in some measure Evans's edition of Goldsmith's Poems,
mentioned in a previous chapter, but that was illustrated by
tinted woodcuts, whereas the volume under notice had etched
tone plates. The title is a fine piece of work, partly printed
in gold. Giron's Les Cinq Sous d' Isaac Laquedem, published
the same year, is a characteristic example of the younger Gillot's
engraving for colour printing. It contains, besides a title-page
in colours, eight facsimiles of water-coloiu: drawings. Another
good example of " Gillotage " applied to colour printing is the
series of illustrations after F. Lix, in an edition of the Voyages
de Gulliver, published in 1888.

Much excellent colour work is seen in some of the volumes
published — ^in very limited editions — for the Soci6t6 des
amis des Livres, founded at Paris in 1880. Artists, en-
gravers and printers alike gave of their best to the production
of these charming works, which were, in many cases, got
out under the supervision of M. Octave Uzanne. The
Chevalier de Boufilers Aline, Reine de Gokonde (1887), in
this series, is a t3^ical French production, engraved throughout
in a script hand, and illustrated with delicate little etchings,
four of which are in colours. It was printed by the Maison
Quantin, on hand-presses. An edition of Alfred de Musset's

248

SOME FRENCH COLOURED BOOKS

Lorenzaccio was produced for the Soci6t6 by Lahure & Co.
in the same way in 1895. The blocks for the illustrations were
engraved by Ducourtioux & Huillard after water-colours
by A. Maignan, and printed in four colours — red, blue, grey
and bistre. These little prints, like most of those in the
Society's books, almost constitute a type in themselves, and
the same remark may be made anent the fine colour illustrations
to Gaillardet and Dimias's drama. La Tour de Nesle (1901),
which was printed by Renouard, the blocks being engraved
by Bertrand after Robida. Both in grain and appearance,
these suggest mezzotints in colour, inked d la poupie, but they
are evidently etchings in black, coloured by successive impres-
sions from photo-etched tone blocks. This is one of the most
handsome of the Society's colour-illustrated volumes. In
their Anntuiire for 1896, M. Paul Avril, a well-known Parisian
artist, had a short paper descriptive of the various methods of
engraving for colour printing, and in it made brief reference
to the process of tinting au patron, which is practically
stencilling in the Japanese fashion. Even this simple oper-
ation is now performed automatically, by means of M. P.
Orsoni's "Aquatype" machine, first brought out in Paris
about 1898. The sheets or prints to be coloured are fed on
to a travelling band, which carries them in turn under as many
stencils as there are colours to be applied, when another
portion of the mechanism passes a colour brush over the stencil
then in position on the sheet. Some of the French fashion
papers have their plates tinted by this machine, which is
also extensively used for picture postcards.

Amongst the most recent French art books illustrated by
colour etchings may be mentioned La DernUre Nuit de * Judas,
by E. Gebhart (Paris, Ferrand), with thirteen beautiful colour
designs by Gaston Bussiftre, The text of the volume is in a
semi-gothic tsrpe, with coloured initials in the medieval
style, each page being surroimded by a border in black and
colour. M. A. Thalasso's Deri Siadet, a picture book of
Turkish scenes (Paris, H. Piazza & Co.), has a series of fifty

249

COLOUR PRINTING

colour-etched illustrations by F. Zonaro, printed on the text
pages.

The " colour-etching " of the printsellers' shops is almost
invariably a foreign — ^generally a French — ^production. Like
other prints from intaglio plates, it can be produced in either
of two wa}^, viz., in several colours at one impression, by
inking the plate d la poupie, or by the use of a separate plate
for each colour. The former is the more conunon method,
and is used by, among others, Richard Ranft, of Geneva, and
Allan Osterlimd, of Stockholm, whose " dust-ground "
aquatint etchings are very popular with those who are interested
in this branch of art. M. P. G. Jeanniot, on the other hand,
uses several plates for the production of his colour etchings,
and this seems to be generally considered the best method
for really high-class work. Practically every colour-etcher
has his own peculiar mode of working, but the principle
varies little. Mr. Vaughan Trowbridge, a New York artist,
produces etchings in colours by a process he learnt in Paris.
He inks the surface of his etched plate in various tints, and
takes an impression from it as in reUef printing. He then
fills the incised lines of the plate with vari-coloured inks, and
wipes the surface clean, or nearly so, as in the ordinary printing
of etchings, registers the sheet with the first impression carefully
on the plate, and pulls the second impression on it. The print
thus requires two workings in place of the one generally used
for intaglio plates in colours, but in this respect Mr. Trowbridge
is only going on the lines adopted by some other colour-etchers.
One of the most popular producers of this class of coloured
prints is M. Fritz Thaulow, of Paris, his pictures also being
the result of successive workings of the same intaglio plate.
In producing the design, a variety of methods is used, the
outlines being prepared with needle and acid in the usual way,
whilst the shadows, etc., are put on with an aquatint grain.
The plates are etched rather deeply, and the black impression
printed in a very dark ink. For the colours, the plate is re-
inked with a pad d la poupie, and a proof pulled to register

250

COLOUR.ETCHING

on the paper with the black one. M. Thaulow generally
takes 200 prints from the plate, twenty or twenty-five of which
he retains, putting the others on the market at ^5 each, a price
at which they seem to sell readily. Some British art galleries,
including the Mimicipal ones at Manchester and Bradford,
are among the purchasers, and several of the earlier prints
command a heavy premium, seUing in certam instances for
as much as ^^20 each. M. Thaulow's " Washerwomen at
Quimperle " is a good example of his style, a feature of which
is the dense shadows. M. J. F. Raflaelli is another Parisian
colour-etcher. As far as can be judged from results, his prints
are likewise produced by successive printings from the same
plate, one serving for the black and another for the colours.
These latter do not, however, occur in solid masses, as in M.
Thaulow's work, but in groups of small lines or patches, so
that the greater part of the surface of the paper is left im-
coloured by both workings. Three tints seem to be the average
number used. Colour-etchings of a different type, although
probably printed by a similar process, are produced by Miss
Mary Cassatt, of Paris. In this case the etched portion only
extends to a few scratches on the plate, the effect being mainly
due to the thin but rather vivid colouring, which is applied
in broad stripes or masses over a large part of the picture.

Although its exponents have been fairly mmierous, the art
of etching in colour had no book exclusively devoted to it
prior to the publication of Herr Vojt Preissig's Zur Technik
der Farbigen Radierung und des Farben Kupferstichs (Leipzig,
1909), which contains a few simple colour illustrations exem-
plifying the author's methods, both for two and three-colour
prints. His tone blocks have a coarse open grain, somewhat
resem1>ling in appearance the " dust grounds " so popular with
French colour-etchers ; a little line etching also enters into the
pictures. The process, and the tools and apparatus necessary
to operate it, are described in full detail, with numerous
illustrations, and the work has the further advantage of possess-
ing a short bibliography of books on etching methods. Herr

251

COLOUR PRINTING

Preissig aims at simplification of the present slow and expensive
process but it will probably have to be still further simplified
— and, what is more, cheapened — ^before it can take a place
as a commercial means of producing colour illustrations for
moderately-priced books.

252

MODERN COLOUR PROCESSES

By Wiixiam Gamble, Editor of the *' Process
Year Book"

LMOST as soon as photography was in-
vented, the idea was conceived of making
it the means of reproducing natural
colours. For a long time it was the dream
of the early experimenters that some
means would be found of permanently
recording the colours seen on the focussing
glass of the camera, but it was not until 1861, when J. Clark
Maxwell, in a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution,
suggested the theory of a three-colour system, that the
investigation of the subject b^;an to proceed on any well
defined lines. Dr. Thomas Young, in 1802, had put forward
the theory that there were only three fundamental colour
sensations, but his idea was discredited and forgotten until
1853, when Professor Helmholtz again brought it forward and
strengthened it t^ his experiments. Clark Maxwell, proceed-
ing on the same lines, proved pretty conclusively the correct-
ness of Young's early assumption, and among the experiments
shown in Maxwell's lecture demonstration was one in which
three photographs of a coloured ribbon, taken through three
coloured solutions, were introduced into a lantern, giving the
images of the red, green and blue parts separately. When
these were superposed a coloured image was seen, which, if the
red and green images had been as fully photographed as the
blue, would have been a truly coloured image of the ribbon.

The obstacle to carrying out this idea was that the photo-
graphic plates of that time were not sensitive to green and
red, but in the course of the quarter century that followed

COLOUR PRINTING

means for producing colour sensitive plates were discovered, and
such plates were employed in the manner suggested by Maxwell.

The first suggestion to apply the idea to colour printing was
by Baron Ransonnet in Vienna, in 1865, and Henry CoUen
(the Queen's drawing-master), in the same year, proposed to
make three n^atives from a coloured subject, through a red,
yellow and blue mediiun respectively. These three negatives
were to be printed in red, yellow and blue ink superposed on
paper. This proposition, however, seemed to ignore the
important fact that the rays producing the n^atives must
not be the same as the colour of the printing inks.

Ducos Du Hauron and Charles Cros, in France, put forward
similar ideas in 1868, but they found they could not carry out
their ideas for want of suitable photographic plates.

In 1873, Professor Vogel, in Berlin, found that a photographic
plate could be made sensitive to different coloured T3ys. This
again stimulated various inventors.

In 1885, Professor Vogel laid down the principle that the
dye used for staining the photographic plate, to make it colour
sensitive, must be of the same colour as the dye or pigment
used for making the printing ink ; or, if the sensitising dye
could not be turned into a printing ink, an ink must be selected
which shows a spectroscopic efficiency as alike as possible to
the sensitiser. This was a mere assumption, which was only
partly true when considered in relation to the dyes known
at that time. In the light of our present-day knowledge,
it can only be r^arded as an antiquated working hypothesis
of historical interest.

Again years passed, and Professor Vogel's publication did
not seem to have had any influence on the results of the
early experimenters, probably because photographic plate
manufacturers and ink makers did not apply the professor's
recommendation as they might have done.

Ulrich, a litho artist in Berlin, was the first to take up
Professor Vogel's idea, but in practice he came to the con-
clusion that the three colours were not sufiicient to produce

254

pholograi^ direci from life by The Dovci

anil kln<l1; leproduceil in Ihm colour

by Messn. J. Swain & .Son, Lid.

EARLY THREE-COLOUR EXPERIMENTS

grey and black ; therefore he thought it necessary to add a
greyish tint. Some of his results were shown at the German
Exhibition in London in 1891, where he took a medal.

About the same time, a London lithographic finn, Messrs.
Gilbert Whitehead & Co., conmienced working a three-colour
process with the assistance of Dr. E. Albert, of Munich, but
although some results were published, both in letterpress and
collotype, the venture did not prove successful.

In the meantime, however, the process had been improving
in Germany very considerably, through the work of Professor
Vogel's son. Dr. E. Vogel. His chief aim was to do away
with the fourth printing plate, and so prove in practice that
the theory of three-colour was correct. Departing from the
practice of previous experimenters, who had started from the
photographic end, and then essayed to find suitable printing
inks, he first selected three inks, and then found sensitisers
to accord with these as far as was practicable, finally producing
the three coloured mediums for photographing through.
The method of printing adopted was collotype, and a factory
was started for the purpose of carrying on the experiments.
At an exhibition in Berlin in 1892 some astonishingly good
results were shown, and the invention was sold in the same
year to Mr. Wm. Kurtz, of New York. Collotype, however,
could not be worked successfully in America, owing to climatic
conditions, and therefore Kurtz had to apply the process to
letterpress printing. In 1893 a still-life subject, consisting
of fruit, was shown, the prints being worked off on the ordinary
typographic press. The result was considered wonderful at
the time.

In 1893 a syndicate was formed for acquiring the rights of
the process for Great Britain, but as they failed to float
the enormous company scheme attempted, the process was
dropped again.

An inventor who had been concurrently at work developing
three-colour work on different lines was Mr. F. E. Ives, of
Philadelphia, who as early as 1889 published a communication

255

COLOUR PRINTING

on the subject in the Journal of the Franklin Institute and
had produced practical three-colour prints some years before,
and who, indeed, claims to have either preceded or evolved
the process simultaneously with Vogel. Mr. Ives was the
inventor of the ruled cross-line screen now universally used for
the half-tone process, and was the earUest to lay down the
principles of its use. Undoubtedly, it is due to the develop-
ment of the half-tone block process towards perfection that the
three-colour idea was made practicable.

The first business founded to work the three-colour block
process on a commercial scale in England was the Photo-
chromatic Printing Co., associated with Messrs. Marcus
Ward & Co., in Belfast. The business, which was founded
and managed by Mr. Martin Cohn, who had come from the
Continent full of enthusiasm for Dr. Vogel's process, was after-
wards transferred to London, and was run under the name
of the Heliochrome Co., with works at Notting Hill. Some
excellent work was produced, but the venture was not a
financial success. Mr. Cohn afterwards joined the firm of
Orford Smith, Ltd., at St. Albans, to again work the process,
but this huge printing business came to grief, and Waterlow
& Sons were the next to take over "Heliochrome." By this
time the three-colour process had become common property,
and niunerous firms had commenced doing it, so that it is
hardly possible to trace further the chronological order of its
development.

The method at first adopted for three-colour block making
was known as the " Indirect Process." Three n^;atives were
made on dry plates through colour filters. The n^ative
for the yellow printing plate was usually taken through a blue
violet filter on an ordinary plate (not colour sensitive), because
the blue-violet sensitiveness of an " ordinary " plate is
sufficient ; the negative for the red printing plate was taken
through a green filter on a green-sensitive dry plate; and
the negative for the blue printing plate was taken through
a red filter on a red-sensitive dry plate. Having obtained

256

IMPROVEMENTS IN THREE-COLOUR WORK

these three record negatives, positives (i.e., glass transpar-
encies) were taken from them, and these positives were copied
through the half-tone screen, so as to obtain the half-tone
negatives for making the printing blocks. This was a round-
about process, involving nine operations, so that the work
was necessarily slow, expensive and imcertain, a fault of one
or other of the operations probably throwing out the whole
set, unless the defect was remedied by hand work.

The progress of three-colour work was aided by the researches
of Sir W. de W. Abney in sensitometric tests ; by Mr. F. E.
Ives in improving his Photo-chromoscope ; by Mr. E. Sanger
Shepherd in standardising colour screens, by Mr. C. G. Zander
in standardising three-colour printing inks ; by Dr. E. Valenta,
Dr. Miethe, Baron von Htibl, and others, in investigating
the photographic properties of dyes, and by Mr. Max Levy
in ruling screens of suitable angles for the overlapping colours.

This matter of screen angles was one of the early difficulties
of the colour process. It was found that if two or three
colours from a given ruling, say one at 45*^ to the sides of the
plate, were superposed, an offensive pattern, something Uke
the moir6 or water-marking of silk, was formed. Dr. E.
Albert, of Munich, claimed to be the first to have discovered
that if different angles were chosen, each var3ang from the
other 15*^ or 30®, this pattern would disappear.

Dr. Albert must be given credit for furthering the improve-
ment of three-colour methods, by his introduction on the
market of a colour-sensitised collodion emulsion, which gave
a much better colour rendering than dry plates, and at the
same time produced a negative which was more suitable for
process work.

In 1899 Messrs. Penrose & G). introduced Dr. Albert's
emulsion into England, sending Mr. H. O. Klein to Munich to
study the process with a view to instructing English workers.
The Arc Engraving Company had in 1897 worked with some
success a collodion emulsion process with the aid of an Austrian
expert, who afterwards brought it to greater perfection at

257

17— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

Messrs. Carl Hentschel & Co.'s studios. Examples of the most
recent work of these two firms are given in this book. It is
to this collodion emulsion process that we owe what is called
the " Direct Process," first made known to the trade in 1902
through the experimental laboratory of Messrs. Penrose & Co.,
which reduced the nine operations of the " Indirect Process "
to three. The first set of negatives was taken not only through
the colour filters but also through the ruled screens at the same
exposure, and these formed both the colour records and half-
tone negatives in one. Naturally, better colour rendering
and more perfect register was the result. This direct collodion
emulsion process is still in use at the present day in most of
the large conunercial houses in England and on the Continent,
improvements having, however, been made in the colour
filters and the sensitising dyes, Mr. H. O. Klein having worked
out the adjustment of the sensitiser to the filter, and the
preparation of the sensitisers suitable for this direct work.

Dr. Albert has introduced recently a so-called " filterless "
emulsion process, the plates being so strongly dyed as not
to require the aid of colour filters, but it must be regarded as
an unsuccessful experiment, leading, however, to the intro-
duction of new sensitisers and a readjustment of the colour
filters. It was found desirable to use at least a " compensation
filter," consisting of a yellow medium to retard the strongly
acting ultra-violet rays ; and it is better still to use a bluish-
green filter for the red printing plate, the yellow filter being
used for the blue, but no filter being required for the yellow
printing plate. This has brought about a great reduction of
exposures and almost ideal colour separation.

The improvements made by dry-plate makers in colour
sensitive plates, and especially in panchromatic plates — i.e.,
plates sensitive to all colours — ^led to efforts being made to
use dry plates for the direct colour process. Mr. E. Howard
Farmer, of the Poljrtechnic School of Photography, achieved
some successful results in this direction, and his process
was taken up by several commercial firms. More perfect

258

THE ORLOFF PRESS

panchromatic dry plates, which have been introduced of
late, have led to the direct process with dry plates becoming
extensively worked, and opinions are now divided as to the
relative advantages of collodion emulsion and dry plates.

Printing-ink manufacturers have also improved their inks
for three-colour work, and there is now a number of excellent
sets of inks on the market. The theoretic requirements of
the three-colour process in the matter of printing inks have
now been closely determined, but so far it has not been found
possible to provide correct inks of the necessary permanency.
It has accordingly been found desirable to issue a series of non-
permanent inks that can be used for colour work in books and
periodicals, which are not Ukely to be exposed to Ught, and
a permanent set, not strictly correct, for prints which have to
be exposed to Ught, such as framed pictures, showcards, etc.
The order of printing is almost invariably yellow, red, blue.

The improvement in printing due to the introduction of
more perfect machinery has had a considerable influence
on the three-colour process. The Miehle, Century and other
American machines of the two-revolution t3^e were found
to give much more perfect register and increased inking
power, which was all in favour of the three-colour process,
and English and German machine makers soon followed on
the same lines. A large amount of colour work is also done
on platen presses, which have been improved in strength of
impression and inking power of late years, specially to meet
the needs of half-tone and colour printing.

Many attempts have been made to do multi-colour printing
continuously, but at the time of writing these efforts cannot
be said to have been completely successful, so far as the regular
three-colour blocks are concerned. The Orloff press, which
was an elaborately constructed machine for four or five colours,
seemed at first promising. The colours, instead of being
printed direct on to the paper, were set-off on to a composition
roller, until the latter had received the entire colour scheme,
when it transferred it to the paper. It was found that this

259

COLOUR PRINTING

machine was only adapted for light tinted blocks, such as are
used for bank note and cheque printing, and to this class of
work the machine has now been consigned. The Lambert
machine, a French invention, was still more promising. It is a
flat-bed machine, which may be described as consisting of
four machines blended into one, as there are four beds for the
blocks, four ink slabs, four sets of rollers and four impression
cylinders. The sheets are fed in at one end, and are carried
automatically from one cylinder to the other, emerging at the
delivery board as finished four-colour prints. The work is of
a good commercial quahty, though it cannot be said to be so
perfect as that produced by printing the colours separately.
Another ingenious attempt to secure continuous printing is
by means of the Tandem Miehle. Three machines are joined
together by means of a special delivery apparatus, so that when
the sheet leaves one machine it passes to the next, and so on
to the third. It is foimd that the printing is perfect enough
so far as uniformity of inking and register is concerned, but
the difficulty of insufficient drying of the colours between
each impression prevents the successful use of the machine
for formes which have to be heavily inked. Two-colour
machines are sometimes used for four-colour printing, by divid-
ing the ink fountain at each end into two parts, and running
a separate colour in each part. This is fairly successful with
" doctored " inks on certain kinds of work. In America, a
crude kind of colour work for Sunday newspapers is done on
fast running rotary machines, but neither the colour nor the
register is good. The colours are appUed from hand-worked
plates, attempts to apply the photographic three-colour
process having met with little or no success. At the time of
writing, a process known as " wet colour printing " is being
developed in America by means of a special rotary press, the
success being due to " doctoring " of the inks and the use
of electrotype plates which have been embossed by a process
of overlaying, so that the shadows and darker tones stand up
in varying relief. The sheet is held on the impression cylinder

260

! !l

!; 2J

ZANDER'S FOUR-COLOUR PROCESS

until all the colours in succession have been printed on it, and
at every revolution of the cylinder a complete copy in four
colours is made. The original plates are half-tones. The
method is being used for the covers, fashion plates, and
advertisement sheets of such papers as the Ladies* Home
Journal, in four or five colours.

Whether to use three or four colours has long been one of
the contested points in colour work. The theoretical advocates
of three colours have stoutly held out for three-colour, but
many practical men hold the faith that three colours can never
give an entirely satisfactory rendering of the subject. The
weakness of the three-colour process is chiefly found in the
rendering of blue in all its gradations, in its inability to yield
a good grey, and in the imperfection of the blacks, which
according to theory should be formed by the superposing of
the three colours in equal strength. The remedy proposed
is to use a black or neutral grey as a fourth printing. Dr.
Albert advocated this in his Citochrome process, and many
leading Continental workers have followed him. In America
a firm known as the Quadricolour Company make it a rule to
use four colours, and do admirable work. It is, indeed, quite
general in America to find four-colour being given the
preference to three, especially in blocks produced by hand
processes. In England, though four-colour work is not so
general, a fourth printing in black is often resorted to, or one of
the trichromatic colours is ryin twice through to get increased
strength. Messrs. Benurose & Son's print, " The Lady
Hildegarde," is an interesting specimen of four-colour printing.

An interesting attempt to found a four-colour system of
colour printing was the Complementary Colour process of
Mr. C. G. Zander, which was patented in 1905. The inventor
assumed that it was necessary to use not three but four funda-
mental colours, viz., red, yellow, green and blue, by mixtures
of which in suitable proportions any colours in nature could
be matched or reproduced. The hues of these four' funda-
mental (or monochromatic) colours may in popular terms

261

COLOUR PRINTING

be described as magenta red, lemon yellow, emerald green
and ultramarine blue. The four colours were grouped into
two pairs of complementary colours, viz., red and green,
yellow and blue, so that when the elements of either pair
were mechanically mixed as pigments, by printing or staining
they produced black. At first sight it might seem that
the only difference from the ordinary process was the addition
of a green printing colour, but actually the other colours
have been scientifically adjusted, or readjusted, so that
they form two pairs of complementary colours. The author
of this process claimed that practically the whole range of
the spectrum colours could be produced by it, besides extra-
spectral purples, dense pure black, and homogeneous greys.
Mr. Zander asserts that no pure black can be reproduced
at all in three-colour printing, whilst by his new process
either of the two pairs would produce black or grey. Several
specimens were produced by the process, and it certainly
appeared capable of rendering more brilliantly the bright
colours of flowers, ribbons, etc., but the results were not
entirely convincing, probably through the engravers not
having sufficient practice with the new method. Printers
did not view with favour the idea of a fourth printing,
and on the whole the process was received so coldly that
the inventor has not pushed it further. An example by
Mr. Zander's process is given amongst the illustrations in
this book. «

It may here be remarked that whilst the attention of one
class of experimenters has been turned to four-colour printing,
another section has tried to secure presentable colour effects
by two-colour impressions. A greenish blue combined with
a brown has, for instance, been made to yield a pleasing land-
scape with sky and water. A bluish grey combined with a
red has effectively produced a portrait with a good flesh tint.
Another way was to print in red and blue on a lemon-yellow
paper. The blocks for such combinations had, however,
to be suitably etched to get the best effects.

262

HAND COLOUR WORK

A curious effect of printing in two colours which had some
vogue for a time was the Plasticine process, which consisted
in printing the two parts of a stereoscopic view, one in pinkish
red and the other in greenish blue, superposed over each
other. The resulting print looks horribly out of register,
yet when it is viewed through spectacles of which one side is
green and the other red the two prints coincide, and give
quite startling stereoscopic relief.

Whilst photographic reproduction of colour has been pro-
gressing apace, there has always been done with a considerable
amount of success what may be termed " hand colour work,"
in which photography played quite an unimportant part.
The simplest process of the kind is where a black outline is
filled in with colours, in the lithographic way of drawing, but
for the purpose of making relief blocks for letterpress printing.
The key might, for instance, be drawn direct on a zinc plate,
or might be put down on the latter by photo-lithographic
transfer. From this plate as many transfers or " set-offs "
were pulled as there were colours to be printed, and these
were put down on other zinc plates. The soUd colours were
painted in, or if lighter tints were wanted, stipple or Une
shading was put down by means of " shading mediums."
A great amount of this kind of work is still done for cheap
journals printed in colours, such as the American Sunday
newspapers, the weekly editions of such Parisian papers as
Le Petit Journal, Le Petit Parisien, etc., and also for a certain
class of comic journals, which are very popular on the Con-
tinent. The English journal. Puck, which has been mentioned
in the previous chapter, is illustrated with blocks produced in
this way.

A superior class of work is produced by the analogous
Goupil process (used for such journals as Le Figaro lUustri),
a kind of inverted aquatint, the grain being in reUef instead
of in intaglio. The key outline is set-off on to plates grained
by allowing a resin dust to fall on them — this being fixed with
heat — and slightly etched. Then the artist proceeds to stop

263

COLOUR PRINTING

out and re-etch the grain tint in gradations of tone. The
parts which are first stopped out are the darkest, and the other
parts become lighter as the etching progresses. Some parts
are cut out so as to print white, or allow the next colour to
print pure.

A similar practice is pursued with half-tone prints. Only
one half-tone negative need be made of a coloured picture,
and this negative will furnish as many prints on the metal
as the number of colours required. The resulting plates are
stopped out and re-etched until each contains the requisite
colour image. This method is the basis of a large amount
of commercial colour work done in America, and also of the
process called Autochrome, largely used on the Continent
for the production of coloured postcards. In the latter method,
however, it is usual to print the coloured tints on the litho
machine, and the half-tone key by letterpress. Naturally
the success of all such processes depends entirely upon the
skill of the etchers who make the colour-selective plates. The
Prescoltint process of the Press Etching Co., of which we give
an example, comes under this category.

Attempts have been made from time to time to make colour
plates by means of a grained screen placed in front of the
sensitive plate in the camera, the idea being that a much
more pleasing and artistic result would be obtained than with
the ruled screen, but the results have not been convincing.
Perhaps the most effective specimens have been those produced
with the Metzograph screen invented by Mr. James Wheeler.
The firm of C. Angerer & Goschl, of Vienna, who have done
much excellent work in monochrome with this screen, have
essayed its use for colour work, but have not thought it
practicable to use it for all the colour plates. In a plate
entitled *< A Cool Drink," published in the Process Year Book
(Volume XLI), the Metzograph screen was used effectively
for the fourth printing in black, whilst in the four-colour plate,
entitled '* The Fishermen's Children," printed in Volume XIII
of the same annual, three of the colours, yellow, blue and

264

BEATA BEATRIX

d direci liotn oriKinal at TaM Gallcrr by

SOME RECENT COLOUR PROCESSES

black, were done with the Metzograph screen, and the fourth
was a half-tone. The only published example that we know of,
produced entirely with this screen, is that of " The Musketeer "
(Meissonier), reproduced in three-colour in the studios of
George Newnes, Ltd., and printed in the Process Year Book
for 1908-9 (Volume XIV). Side by side with it was printed the
same picture done with ruled screens by the Anglo Engraving
Company. Both were excellent reproductions, each with special
characteristics, and it was hardly possible to decide, without
having the original picture before us, which was the better of the
two, though it was noticeable that the Metzograph had a nice
softness of effect which would no doubt be the more pleasing
result to the artistic eye. Another example of colour work
with the Metzograph screen, also by G. Newnes, Ltd., is included
amongst the illustrations to this book. In the same annual,
Volume XV (for 1909-10), there was an example of screenless
three-colour work by Messrs. Andr6 & Sleigh, Ltd. This
was done by a grain process, but the description seems to
imply that the grain had been imparted to the plate by some
such method as the Goupil process already described. The
colour print entitled " The Streams," included in this book, is
produced by Messrs. Andr6 & Sleigh's process.

Grain colour work by relief blocks, it is generally thought,
must inevitably be coarser than similar results printed by
lithography, and many efforts have been made to adapt
photographic processes to lithographic printing. At the time
of writing, however, it cannot be said that these efforts have
been conspicuously successful from a conunercial point of
view. This may be due in part to the prejudice and con-
servatism of lithographic printers, who have taken up the
processes in only a half-hearted way, or have failed from want
of experience in adapting their existing methods to the handling
of the new processes; The Photostone process was one of
the earliest efforts to apply " process " to the preparation
of the stones for lithographic printing. It was a method in
which only one negative was taken. As many prints as the

265

COLOUR PRINTING

number of colours required were made from it, and lithographic
artists proceeded by a system of elimination to take away
the parts not required on each colour plate, at the same time
strengthening or retouching the parts to be printed.

The Photochrom process is understood to be somewhat
of the same nature, the tint colours being printed by Utho-
graphy, but the key printing is believed to be by collotype.
The printing of the colour stones is understood to be done
by means of a sensitive bitumen film, which reticulates into a
granular structure in dr3dng. When this sensitive fihn is printed
under a negative, the grain seems to be developed in a dis-
criminating manner, so as to reproduce the tones of the original.

The Frey process is understood to be on similar hues, and
the results produced have been very fine. The process was
acquired by Messrs. Hudson & Keams, but for some reason
or another they abandoned it. The process is, however, still
worked with success by Messrs. Frey & Sohne, in Zurich.

The firm of Van Leer & Co., at Amsterdam, are doing some
excellent three-colour process work by lithography, using the
Metzograph screen for one or two of the colours, possibly
the yellow and red, and the half-tone screen for the blue
and black.

The Unione Zincografi in Milan are working an excellent Utho-
graphic colour method, and we believe the feature of it is that
three-colour blocks are first made, and after being fine etched
to get the most perfect colour rendering, transfers are pulled
on thin zinc, so as to overcome the difficulty of stretching or
shrinkage which occurs with paper transfers, and prevents
proper register being obtained.

One of the difficulties of the lithographic colour process has
been that with screen work the high lights are covered with
dots which, if too fine, are apt to etch away, or if too coarse
give flatness to the picture. Mr. Frederick Sears attempted
to overcome this by means of his " high-light " process, which
was a method of eliminating automatically in the negative
the dots in the high-light portions, so allowing the half-tones

266

THE OFFSET PRINTING METHOD

to grade down to pure white. This is a much better way
than the method of ehmination by hand- work.

The introduction of the Offset method of printing has
given a new impetus to the application of half-tone and other
photographic processes to lithography, as it was found that the
half-tone was much better printed by this method than by the
ordinary flat-bed system. The principle of the process is that
the impression is first made on a rubber covered cylinder,
and then an *' offset " from this is made on to the paper.
Half-tones up to 200 lines to the inch have been perfectly
printed, and with a delicacy and softness impossible of
attainment by block printing, especially where the impressions
had to be made on rough and uncoated papers. The earliest
attempt we are aware of in England to apply the half-tone
colour process to the offset press was made at the instance
of Messrs. Geo. Mann & Co., for printing on their offset press,
and was published in the Process Year Book for 1909-10, the
title of the picture being " A Spanish Beauty." There were
five printings, red, yellow, blue, flesh and a neutral tint. The
printing is on a rough surfaced paper, and though the result
is not artistically what it might be, it demonstrates the clean-
ness, softness and good register possible by this method.
Included in this book is a more recent example of their work,
" Domino." Good colour work, mostly from hand-drawn
plates, had previously been produced on the Potter and other
offset presses in America. The firm of Donnelley, Sons & Co.,
in Chicago, have made extensive experiments in offset printing,
imder the direction of Mr. J. Albert Heppes, and produced
some excellent work in half-tone and colour. Offset printing
is now making great progress both in England and America,
and undoubtedly it must be reckoned a considerable factor
in the future development of colour printing. Its importance
lies in the fact that durable and plain surfaced papers can be
used, instead of the highly coated and perishable papers usually
employed for typographic half-tone and colour printing.
Some isolated attempts have been made to utihse ordinary

267

COLOUR PRINTING

surfaced papers for such work in letterpress printing, one
notable example being a colour print on super-calendered
paper by Mr. A. Chris. Fowler, pubUshed recently in the
Caxion Magazine, The London County Council School of
Photo-Engraving contribute to this book an example of three-
colour printing on pure rag paper. The average printer has,
however, fallen back on the glossy surfaced papers as presenting
less difficulty, and has endeavoured to impart a grained surface
by passing the sheets between paper-graining rollers, either a
canvas grain or an imitation stone grain being usually employed.

Were it not for certain inherent difficulties of the process,
coUotype would be the most perfect method of colour printing,

and would entirely supersede lithography for any subjects
that could be reproduced by photography. The printing
plate in collotype is prepared by coating a thick glass plate
with gelatine mixed with a bichromate salt, which makes the
film sensitive to light. The effect of exposing such a plate
under an ordinary photographic negative is that the gelatine
is more or less hardened according to the intensity of the
light action. For instance, in the most transparent parts
of the negative, which correspond to the darkest shadows
of the picture, the hardening action is strongest, and the
hardening effect diminishes until in the portions under the
most opaque parts of the negative (the high lights of the picture)
there is practically no action. Now a gelatine film which has
been so acted upon will absorb water in exact proportion to
the hardening, and as water repels a greasy ink the result
of passing an ink-charged roUer over the plate is that the parts
most hardened by the light action take up the most ink, whilst
the high-light portions, being largely charged with moisture,
repel the ink. Between these two extremes there is an almost
perfect scale of gradation of tones formed by different inten-
sities of the ink. Thus we have a picture which corresponds
with the tones of the photographic negative. It would seem
to be quite simple, therefore, to make three negatives through
colour filters, prepare three collotype plates from them, ink

268

THE PHOTOGRAVURE PROCESS

up these plates with the respective colours, and superpose
the impressions of the three plates on one sheet of paper.
But in practice great obstacles occur. A gelatine film in a
moistened state is very susceptible to atmospheric changes,
so that it is hardly possible to get the three printings of equal
strength and quality ; moreover, the moisture in the plate
affects the ink, the rollers and the paper, causing further
variations. There must, therefore, be a considerable propor-
tion of waste impressions in an edition, making the process
slow and expensive. Such examples of coloured collotype
as have been seen — and there has been most excellent work
done by this process — ^probably represent the best impressions
selected from a large number printed. Amongst firms who
have done and are doing excellent collotype work in colour
may be mentioned Herr J. Lowy and Herr Max Jafi6 in
Vienna, Messrs. Bemrose & Son, Ltd., Derby, and Messrs.
W. Griggs & Son, Peckham.

It has long been thought that the ideal process for colour
printing would be photogravure. In this case copper plates
are engraved or etched in intagUo, the picture being formed by
a resinous or bituminous dust grain, as in the case of the old
aquatint process described in a previous chapter, but instead
of the gradation of tone being produced by hand-work it is
rendered by the action of Ught through a photographic negative
(or rather positive, since it is an intaglio process) on to
bichromated gelatine tissue. In the same way as we have
described in collotype, the action is that of more or less harden-
ing the gelatine, but instead of using this property as a means
of inking it is employed to form a resist to the etching fluid.
The gelatine tissue being transferred to the copper, after
the latter has been furnished with a grain, the etching mordant
is applied and penetrates the film in exact proportion to the
light action. The etching proceeds most quickly in the shadows
and consequently goes deepest. Thus these parts hold the
most ink and give the densest deposit on the paper. For
colour printing this would seem to be a decided advantage,

269

COLOUR PRINTING

as it exactly reproduces the artist's way of applying pigment
. to paper or canvas, and naturally many attempts have been
made to apply this process to colour reproduction. The
difl&culty, however, is that of register, first in the printing
and transferring of the gelatine tissue, and secondly in the fact
that copperplate printing must be done with damped paper.
The inking and wiping of the plate also introduces further
chances of inequality. In spite of these difficulties, however,
some excellent results have been shown, though it is probable
they were picked specimens, and it would be interesting to
know what was the proportion of spoilt impressions. Of
course a single photogravure plate can be locally inked with
dabbers or brushes, as described in earUer chapters in connec-
tion with the old intaglio processes, and this is generally done
in the case of the large coloured photogravures produced at
the present time.

Reference has been made in a previous chapter to the
Rembrandt process, which is an intaglio one based on the
photogravure principle, but instead of a dust grain on the plate,
a ruled screen is printed on the tissue. The object of this
screen is the same as that of the dust grain, viz., to give
a discriminating ink-holding property to the plate. But it
does more than this : it enables the engraved surface to be
mechanically inked and wiped. The etching is done on copper
rollers, and these are placed in a rotary printing machine, in
which a roller appUes the ink to the printing cylinder, and a
steel knife scrapes it clean from the surface, leaving it in the
hollows of the engraving. The paper, drawn from a reel,
passes between the printing cylinder and an impression cylinder,
and thus there is a continuous and rapid production of prints.
This is assiuned to be the process adopted by the Rembrandt
Intagho Printing Co., who, however, have so well guarded
the secret of the precise method they use, that little or no
information has leaked out as to the exact details. After
producing for about ten years most excellent prints in mono-
chrome, this company has applied the same process of printing

270

THE REMBRANDT COLOUR PROCESSES

to the production of colour prints, and have shown some very
fine results. It may be assumed that additional printing
cylinders with separate inking, wiping and impressing arrange-
ments are carried in the same machine, so that the colours are
consecutively impressed during the single traverse of the paper
through the press. In this way good register and uniformity
of prints is attained, but the greatest difficulty is no doubt
to get the colours to blend perfectly whilst in an undried state.

Simultaneously an American inventor, Mr. C. W. Saalburg,
has been working on a similar method, and has also succeeded
in producing fine results. Some of his prints have appeared
in the Inland Printer and the Printing Art, which fact implies
that the process is capable of being utilised for commercial
editions, whilst the Rembrandt colour process has only so far
been employed for producing comparatively expensive prints
for framing. The example of the process, " The Conference,"
included in this volume, however, shows the capabilities of
that process for book illustration.

A process understood to be based on half-tone intaglio
printing, called " Autogravure," is being used by the Vienna
firm of C. Angerer & Goschl, and the results yielded by it
are very fine. Some of the prints are embossed, so as to
reproduce the impasto effect of the artist's painting. A
feature of the process is that pure white pigment touches
in the picture are reproduced with great fidelity.

The reproduction of the designs of carpets and coloured
rugs has always tempted the colour process worker, and some
wonderfully good work of this kind has been done by three
and four-colour screen processes, but it has never achieved
the faithfulness and beauty of the lithographic method known
as " flock printing." This consists in printing the colours
with a very tacky varnish ink, and dusting over, as in gold
bronzing, with coloured wool dust or " flock." The result
gives a most velvety texture to the print, suiting the subject
very well. Sometimes the process is varied by printing with
coloured inks on flock paper, instead of dusting. We have heard

271

COLOUR PRINTING

that the process has also been applied to letterpress printing
from three-colour blocks.

An ingenious process of printing several colours from one
plate is the invention of Mr. G. R. Hildyard, and consists
essentially in the cutting out of a thick overlay corresponding
to each colour. By attaching this to the cylinder or platen
of the press, the parts of the plate not intended to print receive
no impression, and therefore do not appear on the paper. A
still more curious process by the same inventor consisted in
cutting out the key outline of a design in high relief from a
special composition, so that there were deep spaces in between
the lines. These spaces were filled up with powder colours.
A varnished sheet, whilst still tacky, was laid over the outline
plate, which was then inverted. The powder colours attached
themselves to the varnished sheet, and thus as many colours
as desired were transferred to the sheet at one impression,
the surplus colours being brushed off as in bronzing.

Another way of printing several colours from one plate is
to cut out masks or stencils, which are interposed between
the plate and paper so as to stop off certain parts. By
using several stencils a similar number of colours can be
obtained.

It is only possible to refer very briefly to the numerous
processes put forward from the earliest inception of the three-
colour process, for obtaining colour prints by first printing
on the paper a series of coloured lines or dots, and afterwards
printing upon this a black image. The theory is that if the
paper is covered with parallel lines in close juxtaposition, and
alternating in groups of red, green and violet, a grey surface
is produced, and if a block is made through a glass screen of a
similar character, this block will have the property of stopping
out the coloured Ught reflected from the lines, in such a way
that the parts of the lines remaining uncovered will reproduce
the colours of the picture. The difficulties of the process
lie in the amoimt of light absorbed, and the impossibility of
getting pure pigment colours, so that the results have been

272

NATURAL-COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY

very weak and dull. The idea has, however, been very
effectively applied by Mr. Julius Rheinberg for producing
ornamental patterns, and an example was given in Volume
XV of the Process Year Book,

Of late there have been developed several processes of
" screen plate " colour photography, in which a glass plate
is first provided with a parti-coloured screen of lines or dots
in groups of red, green and violet, and over this screen is spread
the sensitive photographic emulsion. The exposure is made
through the parti-coloured filter. The result is that when
the image is developed a coloured transparency is seen, but
the colours are complementary to the hues of the object.
By a process of chemical reversal the image is converted into
a positive, and then the primary hues appear and a more or
less effective colour photograph results. In theory it should
be possible to decompose these screen plate pictures into their
separate colours by taking three negatives from them through
colour filters, and then to make printing blocks from the
three negatives, but in practice this is very difficult to accom-
plish, and so far we have not seen any good results from this
method. The Autochrome screen plates of Lumiere have,
however, been copied as coloured pictures by the ordinary
three-colour method, and have yielded very fair results.
The colour print by John Swain and Son, Ltd., is reproduced
from an Autochrome portrait from life by the Dover Street
Studios who are making a speciality of this work.

In the Process Year Book for 1907-8 the Wamer-Powrie
process is described. This consists of reproducing natural
colours by means of closely juxtaposed lines, alternating red,
green and violet on the screen, and printing in red, yellow and
blue. An example is printed showing how the complementary
colour negative made by this process can be converted into
tricolour blocks.

Another process which has been latterly coming to the front
is the " Thames " Colour Plate, and as the colour elements
resemble half-tone dots an attempt has been made with some

273

18— (2238)

COLOUR PRINTING

success to dissect the three-coloured dot systems from the one
plate on to three plates and so make tricolour blocks therefrom.
No doubt three-colour photography from nature for repro-
duction by colour printing will eventually be done by such
processes as these in preference to the somewhat clumsy
method of first making three monochrome negatives of the
separate colours.

274

INDEX

(Roman Numerals rbfbr to trb Prbfacb)

AcKSRMANN, R., publisher and

lithographer. 106, 109. 175
Albert, Dr. £.. photo-engraver. 226,
257. 258

J ., printer of colour collotypes,

226
Alix, P. M.. colour aquatinter, 103
Allen ft Co., printers of colour

photogravures, 224
Almanacs, colour printing in, 33

English, colour printing in.

37, 38, 39
Altdorfer, A., wood engraver, 20
Aluminium, its use in lithography,

215
Andreani, A., Italian chiaroscurist,

23
Andr6 ft Sleigh, three-colour

engravers and printers. 265
Angerer ft Gdschl. engravers and

colour printers, 217, 235, 271
Aquarelles. 105, 248
Aquatint engraving, origin of, 98

description of, 98

for colour work, 98-9

Aquatints in colours, French. 105

English, 105-6-7

hand coloured, 106

Aquatype colour stencilling machine,

249
Aresti, J., chromo-lithographer, 207
Ars Mori&ndi Block Book. 2
Art Photogravure Co., 222
Arundel Society * and chromos,

xii, 211-2
Astronomical treatise of J. Holy-
wood, colour printing in, 6
Audsley, W. and G., their colour

illustrated books, 209-10
Autochrom process, 216
Autogravure process, 271

Baldung, H., 18, 30
Barth. J. A., first chromo-litho-
grapher, 176
Bartolozzi, F., engraver, 89, 90, 94,
97

F., coloured stipples by, 93

Baxter, Geo. (engraver and colour

printer), v. Savage, 1 19-20

Baxter, Geo., his colour printing
process, 124 d/ seqq,

his earUest colour prints,

125

his Patent, 126, 129-30

his printing methods,

127-4, 204

his colour prints, 128

estimate of his work,

131
Baxter's Pictorial Album, 127
Bewick. J., on colour prints. 77, 79
Bijlaert, J. J., stipple engraver in

colour, 85
Bindings, decorative, 192-3
Binns ft Goodwin, colour printers,

169
Blake, W., his colour etchings,

111-12
Block Books, 2
Bloemaert, F., Dutch chiaroscurist,

26
Bocardo. A., printer at Paris, 32
Bonnet, L. M., French stipple
engraver, 84

his colour prints. 84-5, 102

Book covers, coloured, 157-8
Book of Common Prayer (1549), 37
Borders, coloured, in books, 169
Bosse, A., copperplate engraver, 43
Botanical colour-printed plates, xii,

67-8
Boussod, Valadon ft Co., printers

and publishers, 235
Bo3rs. T. S., his colour-illustrated

books, 194
Bradshaw ft Blacklock, colour

printers, 136
Breton, on coloured printing inks,

British and Colonial Printsr and

Stationer, viii, 136
Brooks. Vincent, colour printer,

130, 132, 136. 208. 211
Buck, A., aquatints after, in colours,

105
Burch, J., Rainbow printing, 121
Burgmair, H., 19
Busingk. F., French chiaroscurist,

275

INDEX

Carpi, Ugo da, 16. 22
Cartwright. lithographer, 207
Cassatt, M., colour-etcher, 251
Chiaroscuro, 13

German, 18

modem imitations of, 80

bordered title-pages, 29 et

seqq,
Chidley's (S.), books printed in red,

41
Chiswick Press (The), its colour

work, 137 et seqq.
Chromo lithography, books on, 210

first journal printed by,

210

modem French, 219

Chromotype process, 217
Chromotypogravure process, 234-

5-6
Qowes, printer, 142-3, 185
Cohn, m1, photo-mechanical colour

printer, 227, 256
Collen, H., his colour printing

method, 254
Collotype printing, its origin, 225-6

in colours, 226-7, 229,

267
Colonia, P. de, printer at Seville, 9
Coloured Pictorial, 242
Coloured paper in books, 37
Colourtype process, 238
Combination colour processes, in-

tagUo, 96
Congreve, Sir W., his colour print-
ing process, 121
Cooper, Clay & Co., colour printers,

168
Cordova, F. de, printer at Valla-

doUd, 36
Coriolano, B., Italian chiaroscurist,

25
Cranach, L., 18
Crayon drawings in colour, printed

imitations of, 83 et seqq,
Cros, C, his colour printing process,

230, 254
Crozat coUection of prints, colour

reproductions from, 69
Cunio Brothers, alleged wood en-
gravers, vii

Dagoty, a. £. C, colour prints,
62-^

E. G., colour prints, 63-4

G., colour prints, 65

G. F., colour prints, 63

J. G., and the Le Blon pro-

cess, 59

J. G., three and four-colour

prints, 59

Dalziel Bros., colour printers, 169
Danesi's colour photogravure pro-
cess, 224

three-colour collotypes, 229

Day, W., lithographer, 18z

ft Haghe, chromo-litho-
graphers, 190

ft Son, chromo - lithogra-

phers, 200, 202, 206, 207, 209
Day's shading mediums, 241
Debucourt, P. L., colour aqua-

tinter, 102
De la Rue, T., his coloured printing
inks, 168

T., his colour Uthography,

182-3, 201

T., his printing in gold, 187

Demarteau, G., French stipple

engraver, 85
Descourtis, C. M., colour aqua-

tinter, 104
Devices, printers', in two colours,

33, 40
Dickes, W., colour printer, 133-4
Dickinson Bros., publishers and

chromo-lithographers, 200
Dicksee, J. R., chromo-Uthogra-

pher, 201
Dietrich, C. W. £., engraver in

chiaroscuro, 77
" Direct " half-tone process, 258
Domesday book, in two colours,

212-13
Double-tone inks, 240
Ducos du Hauron, L. A., his colour

printing process, 230, 254
Durer, A., 17

Egypt, chromo-lithography in,

207
Eighteenth-century colour prints,

89, 92
" End papers," early coloured, 75
Engelmann, G., chromo-lithogra-
pher, 177, 179 et seqq,, 196
and Grai, chromo-lithogra-
phers, 181
Eragny I^ress colour illustrated

books, 244-5
Etching in colours, 246. 250, et
seqq,

in France, 247

Evans, Edmund, engraver and
colour printer, 154 << seqq.

his early colour work,

154

chiaroscuro colour work,

156 209
Exhibition of 1851 (London), 167,
199 et seqq.

276

INDEX

Fawcbtt, Benj., engraver and
colour printer, 159 etseqq,

his colour work, 162

Ferzoe, Sciencs Pratique de Flmpri-

merie, v
Figaro JUuslri, colour plates in, 235

Mod$s, colour plates in, 236

Flock printing in colours, 271
Four-colour half-tone printing, 239,

261
Fran9ois, J. C, French stipple
engraver, 83

his colour prints, 83-4

Frankau, J., modem copies of old

colour prints, 94
Frey colour printing process, 266
Fox-Talbot's photo-engraving pro-
cess, 220
Fust ft Schoeffer, printers at
Ment2, 4, 5. 6

GiLLOT, engraver for colour print-
ing, 247

" GiUotage " etching process, 247-8

Goltz, Hubert, 28

Hendrik, 28

Gold, printing in, 10, 185

Gospels of Ulphilas, vii

Goupil ft Co., colour printers, 222-3,
234, 263

Graf, C, chromo-lithographer, 189

Graphic, colour plates in, 172

Greek books, colour work in, 32,
38

Gregory, Collins ft Reynolds, colour
printers, 145-6

Gnffiths, H., colour etching pro-
cess, 246

Griggs ft Sons, colour printers, 216

Grimm ft Wursung, printers, Augs-
burg, 34

Gubitz, F. W., his colour prints, 79,
80

Gutenberg, J., 2, 4

Haffnbr, J. G., colour printer at

Mentz, 49-50
Half-tone colour printing methods,

234

early French, 234-

5-6

early English. 237

early American,

238
Hancock's caoutchouc binding pro-
cess, 191
" Hand-colour work "in half-tone
printing, 263

18a— (2238)

Hanhart, M. ft W., chromo-litho-
graphers, 196 d/ seqq,

their chromo-Utho pro-
cess, 199

Hay, W., machine wood engraver,
169

Helmholtz, Prof., his colour theory,
253

Herzog, J., printer at Venice, 8

Hildebrand, C, chromo-lithogra-
pher, 178

Hildyard, G. R., his colour printing
inventions, 219, 272

Hodson, S. J., his " Chromogra-
phic" process, 171

Hopyl, W., printer at Paris, 37

Horae, early Parisian, 9, 13

of B.V.M. (1490), 9

Hullmandel, C, lithographer, 182,
193-4-5

ft Walton's colour printing,

196, 200
Humphreys, Noel, his colour-illus-
trated books, 152, 189
Husnik ft Hausler, engravers, 239

" Illuminated " books, 188, 190,

192
lUustraUd London News, coloured

plates in, 147
Illustrations, colour-printed, in

early scientific books, 42
" Indirect " three-colour process,

256
Initials, early two-colour, 4, 5
Inks for colour-printing, v, vi, 120-1

259
Intaglio engravings in colours,

methods of inking for, 88
Ives, Fredk. £., inventor of the

three-colour process, 231-2, 237,

255

Jackson, J. B., engraver in chiaro-
scuro, 72 et seqq,
^paperhangings in colours,

Essay on Engraving, 75

Janinet, J. F., colour aquatinter,

103-4
Japanese colour prints, 112-13-14
Jaumer, J., printer at Paris, 9
Jeanniot, M. P. G., colour-etcher,

250
Jones, Owen, chromo-lithographer,

150, 183

hiaAlhambra, 185, 187-8

" illuminated " books,

188-9

277

INDEX

Jones Owen» Grammar of Ornamsnt,

205-6
chromo - lithographed

books, 207-8
Justinian's works, colour printing

in, 32

Kauffmann, Angelica, artist, 86-89
Kelmscott Press colour printing,

191
KirkaU. £., his chiaroscuro mezzo-
tints, 67-8

E., his coloured mezzotints,

68-9

Klic, K., photogravure process, 221
Knapton, C, his chiaroscuro etch-
ings, 70
Knight, Chas., his " illuminated
printing," 141 «/ seqq.

colour prints in his Old

England, 143-4
Kndfler, H., sen., engraver and
colour printer, 164

his early work, 165

, H., jun., engraver and colour

printer, 166

, R., engraver and colour

printer, 166

Bros., their colour prints, 167

Kronheun, J. M., colour printer,

134-5-6
Kurtz, W., his colour printing,
238, 255

L' Admiral, J., three-colour print-
ing, 66

Lahure & Co., colour printers, 234,
236

Lalleman, G., 27

Lambert colour printing machine,
260

Lasinio, C, three-colour prints, 64-5

Lasteyrie, Comte C. P. de, his
colour lithography, 179

Laurie, R., mezzotinter in colour,
87

Le Blon, C, three-colour process.
Si et seqq,

Pat-
ent for, 54

C, H. Walpole's opinion of,

C, G. Vertue's opinion of, 55

C, tapestry process, 56-57

in France, 58

Le Blond & Co., colour printers,

132-3
Leigh ton, Geo. C, colour printer,

126, 129, 145 et seqq.

Leighton Bros., their colour print-
ing work, 148-9

L^nercier A Qaye, chromo-htho-
graphers, 204

Le Pnnce, J. B., inventor of aqua-
tint, 99

Le Sueur, N., chiaroscuro etchings,
69

v., engraver for colour work,

Letter of Indulgence (1454), 2

Letterpress printing in colours (18th
century), 49, 50, 1 10, 168

French (19tli cen-
tury), 172-3

Levy's automatically ruled screens,
237

Lewis & B5hm, colour photogra-
vure process, 221

Lewis, Courtney, his book on
Baxter, ix

Liechtenstein, P., printer at Venice,
33

Line engravings in colours, early,

42 et seqq.

(Lastman's A

Schenck's), 43

(Teyler's), 44

(MiteUi's), 47

(in " Turkish Car-
pets "), 47

(J. Robert's), 66

modem, 241

Lithography, invention of, 174

early, in colour, 175

three-colour, 177, 179, 207,

266

Lithographic printing machinery,
201

Locatellus, B., printer at Venice, 7

London Colour Printing Co., 242

Lottery Bills, printed in colours,
122-3

Lumtere autochrome screen plates.
273

Lutma, J., his engravings in
" Opus MaUei," 83

Lydon, F. A., engraver for colour
work, 161

Machinery for colour printing, 259
Mackenzie, W., his colour printing

method, 168
McLean, T., publisher and litho-
grapher, 202
Mair, early German artist, 17
Mann, Geo. A Co., and the offset

process, 267
Bianuscripts, illuminated, 1, 3

278

INDEX

Marbling. 48

Marples, D.. colour printer, 16d>70

Maxwell, Prof. J. Dark, his colour
theory, 230, 251

" Mazarin " Bible, 4

Medici Society's colour prints, 228

Meisenbach, G., photo-engraving
method, 233

Mentz Psalters (1457-9), 4

Canon of the Mass (1458), 4

Metzograph screen, 264

Mezzotinting, invention of, 52

Mezzotints in colours, 66-7, 87,
90, 92

Miehle press (Tandem) for colour
printing, 260

Million, coloured plates in, 242

Missale Specials, 5

Missals, Ratdolt's, 10, 31

Montdorge, G. de, on the Le Blon
process, 61

Morris, Rev. F. O., his colour illus-
trated books, 160-1

Mulinari, S., his colour prints, 96

Multi-colour half-tone printing, 240

Multitone process, 217

Nealb's colour photogravure pro-
cess, 224

Necker, Jost de, 16, 19

Nelson & Sons, their chromo-litho.
process, 203^

Newspapers, introduction of colour
printing into, 147, 260

Newton's (Isaac) theory of colour,
51

Nicholson's Dictionary of Chemistry,
on red ink, vi

" Offset " litho printing process,

215-16, 267
Oleographs, 212
OrlofF press, 259

Paper, old. 15

Paperhangings, early coloured, 75-6
Papillon, J. M. B., wood engraver,
77

on coloured printing inks, v

Paris lUusiri, colour plates in, 235
Pegnitzer, J., printer at Seville, 33
Penrose & Co., 226
Photochromatic Printing Co., 227,

237, 256
Photochrom process. 214, 266
Photo-chromo - lithography, 212,

214, 216
Photo-chromo-xylography, 214
Photography, early, 220

Photogravures in colours, 222, 269

machine-printed, 223,

271

Photostone process, 265

" Picture Office" (Le Blon's com-
pany), 53-4

Pingrenon, his bibliography of
coloured books, xi

Plasticine process, 263

Plajring cards, in Venice (1441), viii

early 15th century, 7

(designs of), in Ghisi's

Laberinto, 42

Polygraphic process, xii, 109

Pond, A., his chiaroscuro etchings,
70

Portalis, Baron, articles on colour
printing, x

Portesio, A. de Z. de, printer at
Venice, 34

Pr6, G. de, printer at Paris, 35

J. de, 9

Prescoltint process, 264

Preissig, V., his book on colour-
etchmg, 251

Prestel. J. T., aquatints in colour,
107-8

Pretsch, P., his photogravure pro-
cess, 221

Printing, early, in the Far East, vii

in colours, articles on his-
tory of, viii

press, old, 15

triple (Lalleman's), 27

Process Year Booh, 264, 265, 267,
273

Racquet Court Press (The), 158-9
Raffaelli, M. J. F., colour-etcher,

251
Ransonnet, Baron, his colour print-
ing method, 254
Ratdolt, E., Venice, 6, 9

Augsburg, 10, 31

Rationale Dtv. Off, of Durandus, 5
Rees' Cyclopadia, on coloured print-
ing inks, vi
Rembrandt Intaglio Printing Co.,

223, 270-1
RepiUiHs Tituli of De Montibus, 8
Rheinberg, J., his colour printing

process, 273
Richardson, M. A., colour printer,

170
Robert, A., and the Le Blon pro-
cess, 59-61
Rogers, E., colour printer, 170
Roulette, for engraving, 104
Rowley's patent for coloured print-
ing ink, vi

279

INDEX

Rowney, F. W., his " Typochro-
matic " printing, 168

Royal Printing Office, Paris, its
colour work, 163

Rubricated books, 3

Rugendas, C, his colour mezzo-
tints, 96

Ryland, J. J., stipple engraver, 85
ei seqq,, 97

Saalburg, C. W., colour photo-
gravure process, 271
St. Albans Press, 8

Booh of, 8

Chronicle, 8

St. Anthony, early colour print of, 12
St. Christopher, woodcut of (1418),

• • ■

vm
St. Bride Foundation Technical

Library, xi
Salaman, M. C, on old EngUsh

colour prints, 90
Sanctis & Santritter, printers at

Venice, 7
Savage, W., on coloured printing

inks vi
W..'his "Decorative Print-
ing," 116 ^ seqq,
Scacciati, A., his colour prints, 96
Schott, J., printer at Strasburg, 29
Schreiber collection of early prints,

12
Screen-plate colour-photography,

273
Screens for half-tone process, 233

Levy's, 237

-, ruled, angles of, 257

Sears' "High-Light" Utho process,

266
Seghers, H., etcher in colour, 43
Senef elder, J. A., Uthographer,

174-5-6
Sepia, printing in, 138
Shaw, H., his colour illustrated

books, 137-8
Silbermann, G., colour printer, 163
Silk and satin, pictures printed in

colours on, 95
Skippe, J., engraver in chiaroscuro,

78
Slaughter, S., engraver in chiaros-
curo, 71
Stanhope press. 15
Stencilling in colour, 21
Stereotype, printing from, in two

colours. 111
Stipple engraving, origin of. 82
for colour work, 87,

92-3

Storch & Kramer, chromo-Utho-

graphers, 212
Storck, J., chromo-Uthographer, 178

Tbxtilb fabrics, colour printing on,

145. 170
Teyler, J., his colour prints, 44 »t

seqq.
" Thames " colour plate, 273
Thaulow. F., colour-etcher, 250
Thornton. Dr., colour prints in his

book. 92, 104
Three-colour photography, 274
" Three-colour " printing, its origin,

232
mezzotints (Le Blon's), 51

«/ seqq.
Transfer Uthography, 203
Trento, A. de, Italian chiaroscurist,

23
Tridino, G. de. printer at Venice, 7
Trichromatic printing, its theory,

231
Trowbridge, V., colour-etcher, 250
Two-colour printing in half-tone

240, 262

Ulrich, his colour printing process,
254

Underwood. T., chromo-lithogra-
pher, 200

Van Amstbl, J. C. P., colour
aquatinter. 100

his colour prints, 100-

101

Varro's Peplographia. vii

Verard. B., printer at Paris, 34

Vicentino, G. N.. Italian chiaros-
curist, 25

Vidal, L., and colour printing pro-
cesses, 226, 231, 237

Vize telly, H., colour printer, 149
ei seqq.

Vogel, Dr. £.. and colour photo-
graphy. 237, 255

Dr. H. W., his colour collo-
type process. 226, 254

Walker, E., colour engraver and

printer, 224
Wamer-Powrie colour-photography,

273
Waterlow & Sons. Ltd., their colour

collotyx>es. 227
their three-colour print-
ing. 238-9
their chromo - lithogra-

phy. 209

280

INDEX

Watts, S., wood engraver, 81

colour-etchings, 8S-7, 97

Wechtlin. J. W.. 20

Weiditz, H., German artist, 29, 30,

34
Weishaupt, F., chromo-lithographer,

177
Whitehead, G. & Co., colour

printers, 237, 255
Wlkiting & Branston, engravers for

colour work, 122
Whittaker, J., printer in gold,

185-7
Willemin, N. X., engraver for

colour work, 97

Woodcuts, early, viii

Wood engravings in three-colours,

243
in colour, 244

Young, J., mezzotints in colours, 91
T., his colour theory, 253

Zander's Complementary Colour
Process, 261

2^etti, A. M., engraver in chiaros-
curo, 72

Zinc, the use of, in lithography, 188,
201

THE END

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(2238)

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